New Subscriber Playlist: “Heavenly Voices, Volume One”

Throughout the ’90s, Germany’s Hyperium Records released a series of Heavenly Voices compilations. As the name suggests, they highlighted goth, industrial, darkwave, post-punk, and neofolk bands fronted by female vocalists who had — you guessed it — heavenly voices.

This month’s playlist — titled “Heavenly Voices, Volume One” — is my attempt at highlighting some of my favorite ethereal female vocalists across the aforementioned genres. I intentionally skipped the more prominent and obvious singers (e.g., Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard, Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser), opting instead to highlight some lesser known but no less deserving — and no less heavenly — singers.

Accompanying the playlist is the latest episode of my“Playlist Breakdown” podcast, in which I spotlight one of the playlist’s songs and why it’s so special, interesting, and/or meaningful. In this month’s episode, I discuss “Stare Into Light,” the dreamy opening track from Velour 100’s sublime debut album, 1996’s Fall Sounds.

Both of these are little bonuses for subscribers who support Opus financially. If you’d like to get access to them (and more), subscribe to Opus for $5/month or $50/year. (You can also subscribe for free and get my weekend newsletter.)