4. Jenny Hval Apocalypse, Girl
Jenny Hval's Apocalypse, Girl is perhaps the strongest statement of female empowerment yet produced in music. The Norwegian Hval is a provocateur extraordinaire, and this album is her punch-in-the-face to patriarchal tendencies in popular music while simultaneously being one of the most fascinating examples of electronic instrumentation employed in song-writing so far this year. Apocalypse, Girl is filled with gorgeous melodies and catchy songs, but it is concurrently jarring and experimental from start to finish. It is a breathtaking release. There can't have been many pop albums that feature lyrics as deliberately confrontational as those included on Apocalypse, Girl. "I beckon the cupcake, the huge capitalist clit", she states on opener Kingsize. "Metal spikes embrace my spine, my face, my cunt" she sings on Sabbath. "Feminism is over and socialism's over" she reminds the listener on That Battle Is Over. She is foregrounding her sexuality and deliberately sticking a middle finger up to those that would have discussions of women's intimate feelings censored. Satisfaction and sex belong to everyone - not just white heterosexual men. Why, Hval argues, shouldn't she be able to write pop songs about the experience of first becoming sensually attracted to a boy? Why is that only OK when it is a male songwriter? Female sexuality is considered more dangerous in a patriarchal society - it is easier if it is controlled and locked away, with men dictated how women should be portrayed sexually. When Hval speaks on Sabbath about dreaming of being a boy and masturbating over a showering boy (replete with orgasmic yelps), it is a reflection of the discomfiting male gaze that is seemingly entitled to engorge itself on the female figure at every opportunity - as opposed to women, whose intimate feelings are oppressed or labelled as wayward, slutty or "promiscuous". The lyrical themes on this album are deep, and they could be explored in so much depth. Needless to say, Hval's release is utterly brave and groundbreaking, and every word that she speaks is a hammer-blow to the lazy dominant stereotypes of femininity perpetuated by a patriarchal culture. That she manages to fuse such complex ideas with such weird soundscapes is just a bonus really. Every track is a fusion of surreal experiments in composition and multi-layered electronic sounds. Why This?, White Underground and the brief interlude Some Days wouldn't sound out of place on any avant-garde electronic album (were it not for the inclusion of vocals). In fact, Hval's vocal approach - widely varied, and featuring multiple effects - is instantly reminiscent of those of Dawn Richard and Holly Herndon elsewhere on this list. Combining such biting and pertinent themes of gender and identity with a mastery of songwriting and an experimental tendency is no mean feat, but Hval mastered those abilities long ago. Apocalypse, Girl is just a further example of how incredible and vital an artist she is.