12. The RochesSpeak

It’s a beautiful record. The Roches are a band of sisters, and they’re really well known for some stuff they did in the 70s. But I feel like they matured as songwriters and composers in the 90s. And I think Speak is another sleeper hit, if you can kind of get past the super 80s production. There’s some really amazing songs on it.

This I found on streaming because I had The Roches’ first LP with ‘Hammond Song’ on vinyl. Then I just never saw any of their other records at record stores. The one benefit of streaming is you can go on and look at a whole discography. I was like, I gotta get into their whole discography because I never see their other records anywhere. That’s how I got into Speak. It’s helped me feel more comfortable with my femininity in music. I never wanted to seem just like female music or something, but I think I have gotten over that. I think it was because I was such a fan of so many bands that were predominantly male. When I first started playing music, there were people who were simply straight out there like: I do not like the sound of the female voice, you know? But I don’t think you get that nowadays.