THIS WOMAN’S WORK
Whether it was Robyn doing her DJ set in Club Domo, Róisín Murphy predictably pulling out all the stops in a streamed show or Sophie Ellis-Bextor just being delightful singing with her kids, it’s true to say music and women in music served as markers to aid us through lockdown. Another brilliant creation of this time period is This Woman’s Work, the intriguing and enlightening collaboration between Kim Gordon and our own Sinéad Gleeson in which they serve to shine the spotlight on women in music and women who are inspired by women in music. “Music catches you. You can’t explain it, you have to experience it, and these essays are more scores than explanations, pieces that honour the music and are rooted in autobiography to get closer to it, the rich articulation of experience,” says Heather Leigh in her introduction.
Across 16 richly diverse contributions – Anne Enright being a ‘Fan Girl’ of Laurie Anderson, Gleeson delving into the world of Wendy Carlos, Yiyun Li singing Communist propaganda songs to herself on a Texan road trip or Megan Jasper (extract here) recounting an internship with Sub Pop – there’s a wealth of empathy and insight to be treasured, serving as a jump-off point for explorations of your own. Sinéad has compiled an accompanying Spotify playlist with 230 songs starting with Kate Bush after whose track the book is titled – spoti.fi/3uB8Ny9
White Rabbit Books, edited by Sinéad Gleeson and Kim Gordon,
€15.99 (paperback), €25 (hardback)
