International Women's Day - Underrated Women in Music

Today (March 8th) is International Women's Day! As a quick little post today to celebrate, I wanted to highlight several women in music past and present whom I think deserve to be on everybody's radar.

Jade

Followers of my Instagram will know I am a massive fan of Little Mix singer Jade Thirlwall's debut solo album, but that's not who we're talking about today. Jade are one of the more overlooked acts of the 90's female R&B boom, which is among my favorite eras of popular music ever. A trio combining smooth R&B sounds with some funk elements, Jade dropped two records to decent commercial success, with 1992's Jade to the Max going platinum and 1994's Mind, Body & Song reaching gold status. Still, neither album cracked the top 50 in the US, and they were somewhat overshadowed by three-initialed contemporaries like SWV and TLC. Their big single, "Don't Walk Away," remains their most popular by far on streaming, but today I want to specifically highlight the brilliant "5-4-3-2 (Yo! Time Is Up)." The beat is addictive, the harmonies are perfect, and I promise you'll be singing that refrain all day. (Shoutout to the person in my Music League who submitted this and brought it into my rotation!)

Slowwves

Jumping all the way to the present day, we have Slowwves, a shoegaze band out of Bangkok whose 2025 debut album Perfect Evasion rocked my world last year. Slowwves lean into the heavier, moodier side of shoegaze, following in the footsteps of genre titans like Catherine Wheel and Nothing. Unlike a lot of other newer shoegaze bands, however, they don't use the weight of their music as a crutch, with the songwriting strong and diverse. Perfect Evasion captures this well, from the rollicking "Labyrinth" to the methodical and massive "Evangeline," embedded above. Mononymous singer Jill guides us like a beaming light through fog, further helping Slowwves stand out as perhaps the best band to emerge from the shoegaze scene in Southeast Asia.

Them Are Us Too

Sticking in the shoegaze/dream pop realm, we have Them Are Us Too. Them Are Us Too were a powerful duo whose trajectory was cut tragically short, as guitarist Cash Askew sadly passed away in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in 2016. The band's combination of washed-out synths and searing guitar lines is best highlighted on "Eudaemonia." Singer Kennedy Ashlyn has a remarkably powerful voice that reads as a more legible Elizabeth Fraser. After Askew's passing, Ashlyn finished up the posthumous Amends in 2018, with highlights including the pulsating "Floor" and the mournful "Grey Water." While Them Are Us Too were sadly limited to only two albums, within that time they achieved a fully-realized sound that deserves more recognition. Thankfully, Ashlyn has continued as a solo artist under the name SRSQ, and I recommend checking her two albums under that name as well.

Sylvia St. James

Another throwback, next we have Sylvia St. James. I found her music while crate-digging at a record shop and noticed the striking portrait-style album cover of her 1981 album Echoes and Images (see above). It's an excellent album that fits into that classic 80s R&B/soul sound and stands toe-to-toe with some of the genre's greats like Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle. My favorite is "Grace," in which St. James really flashes her impressive vocal chops. Echoes and Images was her second and final album as a solo artist, and despite a successful career in the gospel music world and big-name collaborators like Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick Jr, Carol Channing, and Barbra Streisand, her music has almost zero traction on streaming. I love discovering a good retro hidden gem, and Sylvia St. James is one of my favorites.

Caroline Kingsbury

Finishing up today's list is Caroline Kingsbury, an up-and-coming artist out of LA whom I expect to have a massive breakout in the near future. Kingsbury fuses 80's new wave with a more modern alt-pop sensibility, and her songs feel instantly anthemic. "Kissing Somebody Else" might as well be the soundtrack to a John Hughes prom scene, while the punchy "Shock Treatment" is equal parts Duran Duran and Hot Chip. My personal favorite is "Somebody Take My Phone Away," a groovy jam with a big chorus that perfectly captures the struggles of dating in the modern age. Keep an eye on Kingsbury, as I'm willing to bet her next album is one everybody's gonna be listening to.