I was randomly playing albums on my iPod at work today, and I happened to play two female groups in a row, which for me is a rarity, seeing how much male singers and groups dominate my 8,000 song collection. I got to thinking, since the women i spin are so rare, who are my favorites.

Tegan & Sara (best album: So Jealous)
Sugababes (best album: Three)
Kelly Clarkson (best album: Breakaway)
Anna Nalick (debut album: Wreck of the Day)
Maria Mena (debut album: White Turns Blue)

All I know about these women is that they can rock when they have to. Take Kelly Clarkson, for example. She comes out of the American Idol factory that has thus far made crap singers popular, given them audience-tested songs to hit it big initially (exhibit A: the pedestrian Carrie Underwood), and then the world turns away next season to a new crowd, leaving the old winners with their thumb stuck out at some rural bus stop, trying to get home from their last, cancelled show. The dustbin is filled with them. Ruben, the Martin Short lookalike Clay Aiken, Fantasia, etc. Kelly was supposed to disappear too. She was good, but not great, on her first album. Did you see her Ms. Independent video? She looked like she didn't even know what to do with her hands the whole time. And after everyone learned the song was originally for Christina, well, they started imagining what could have been. So there goes Kelly, into the dustbin. Then she hits the radio with her second single from Breakaway, Since U Been Gone. And damn Gina, if it didn't rock harder than Creed (i keed, i keed!). The whole album is a joy, and a realization of her potential.

On that note, Anna Nalick's debut is amazing. I'm seeing her with Howie Day on Aug 10.

Tegan & Sara are sisters who are lesbians (they avoid each other). They have somewhat nasally voices, but are great songwriters who have been around for years.

The Sugababes are a girl group that straddles pop, techno, and R&B. They avoid the girl group dynamic by focusing less on being girls who sing, and more on the music, which is catchy as hell.

And Maria Mena is a waifish looking girl who has the oddest voice ever to hit the Top 40. But she too, amidst some traditional pop songs, lets wail on a few tracks.