From every indication, 2005 belonged to Fiona Apple. Her eagerly anticipated album Extraordinary Machine was a critical success and the fans singing along to the new songs when she played Chicago late in the year were clearly ecstatic about her return. Leslie Feist’s solo debut, Let It Die, was every bit the equal of the Apple disc, and continues to gather steam this year.

Apple and Feist can also count a few other women in their company whose 2005 releases are keeping them relevant in the new year. The fact that Kate Bush has kept her live performances to a minimum for many years probably puts a damper on the potential for a U.S. tour, but that shouldn’t prevent listeners from losing themselves in her extraordinary double disc Aerial (Columbia) set. On her first new studio release in a dozen years, Bush doesn’t disappoint her legion of fans, particularly on standout tracks such as “How To Be Invisible,” and “?,” to mention a couple.

Ellie Lawson’s blend of organic and electronic instrumentation on her The Philosophy Tree (Whatever It Takes) recalls Jem and early Beth Orton. The disc has its charms, including opening track “L.A.,” which borrows from a William Orbit/Beth Orton tune.

Brandi Carlile continues to tour in support of her self-titled debut (Columbia/Red Ink). If she’s as magnetic live as she is on this album, then she has a bright future.

On The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly (Compass/Pure), British folk singer Kate Rusby takes wing over the course of a set that includes originals and traditional tunes, indicating that now is as good a time as any for a folk music revival.

What of the women of 2006? Cat Power leads the pack with the aptly named new album The Greatest (Matador). On her previous album, 2003’s astonishing You Are Free, Chan Marshall hinted at what we would come to hear on The Greatest, on songs such as “I Don’t Blame You,” “Good Woman” and “Maybe Not.” Taking it more than just a step further, Marshall has crafted nothing less than a 21st century update of “Dusty In Memphis.” Breathing a blue-eyed soulfulness into these songs was probably made easier by the presence of Hi Records session men (and brothers) Mabon “Teenie” Hodges and Leroy “Flick” Hodges. But it’s important not to detract from Marshall’s sultry performance or from her songwriting skills, which have never been displayed in such a stunning manner. I could just rave the best of these dozen songs, which includes the title track, “Living Proof,” along with “Lived In Bars,” “After It All,” the Neil Young echoes of “Love & Communication,” the twang of “Empty Shell” and “Islands,” and my very favorite, “Willie.” Instead, what I will say is that the album’s only clinker, “Where Is My Love,” in no way diminishes the qualities of the rest of the songs that qualifies this as one of the contenders for greatest album of 2006.

Sounding more like Neko Case than the modern pop diva we came to know and love in Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis gets warm and fuzzy on Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love). Paired up with The Watson Twins (Chandra and Leigh), as well as a stellar cast of guest musicians including Conor (Bright Eyes) Oberst, Ben (Death Cab For Cutie) Gibbard, Johnathan Rice and two-thirds of Maroon 5, among others, Lewis takes us in new and unexpected directions. The alternative vibe is strong throughout and fits Lewis like, well, a rabbit fur coat. Listeners will find themselves fighting the urge to buy secondhand cowboy boots and 10-gallon hats as the strains of hard-to-shake numbers such as “The Big Guns,” “Rise Up With Fists!!,” “Happy” and “You Are What You Love,” replay themselves in their heads. Additionally, Lewis’s cover of The Traveling Wilburys is a much-needed reminder of the song’s staying power. Lewis will be playing at Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater on April 1.

Unlike her debut album, Trailer Park, or its follow-up, Central Reservation (which served as a soundtrack for a 1999 road trip), Beth Orton’s new album, Comfort of Strangers (Astralwerks), doesn’t have the same immediate impact. Not to say that it’s not a worthy addition to her canon. Even 2002’s inconsistent Daybreaker deserves a place. The piano-driven “Worms” and the lo-fi “Countenance” are intriguing, as is the loping and shifting “Rectify.” But I had to do a bit of skipping around – to “Conceived,” to “Absinthe” (which opens with some lovely harmonica work by Orton), to the forward motion of “Shopping Trolley,” to the barebones drama of “Pieces Of Sky” for something that amounted to enough variety to keep my attention from drifting.

One of the most talked about artists of the year, female or male, KT Tunstall has hit the scene with her debut album, Eye To The Telescope (Virgin/Relentless). The dozen songs presented here display Tunstall’s versatility and natural ability to cross genres. Her folk/pop purr can switch to a roar at the drop of a hat (see “Under The Weather” and “Black Horses And The Cherry Tree”), but she never loses control of the moment. In fact, she’s an artist who always sounds like she is in the moment, as you can hear on “Miniature Disasters,” “Silent Sea,” “Suddenly I See,” “Stoppin The Love” (which crosses over into Shelby Lynne territory) and the spiritual-like album closer “Through The Dark.”

The only other debut artist receiving as much buzz as Tunstall might be Sia (surname Furler), whose name and music you should expect to hear throughout the year. In fact, you may already know of her through her graceful song “Breathe Me,” which could be heard on “Six Feet Under.” Where Tunstall’s sound is earthy and organic, Sia favors the more ethereal and experimental. Loops, programming and other “noises” infiltrate her songs like friendly ghosts, and haunt the listener on tunes such as “Rewrite,” “The Bully,” and “Moon,” to name only a few. Sia will be performing at the Casbah on April 1 and at the Troubadour in L.A. on April 3.

Isobel Campbell, vocalist and cellist from Belle and Sebastian, goes it alone, sort of, on Ballad Of The Broken Seas (V2). Mark (Queens of the Stone Age/Screaming Trees) Lanegan teams up with Campbell, serving as the weight that keeps her airy vocals from floating away. Expanding on the Ramblin’ Man EP (two and a half songs of which can be found here), the pair dabbles in various strains of blues, country and folk over the course of a dozen songs.

Beth Nielsen Chapman and Cindy Bullens addressed grief and loss on their discs Sand And Water and Somewhere Between Heaven And Earth, respectively. Having lost her stepmother, June Carter Cash, father Johnny Cash and mother Vivian Liberto Cash Distin within a two-year period, Rosanne Cash follows in Chapman and Bullens’s footsteps with the fittingly mournful Black Cadillac (Capitol). At once personal and universal, Cash’s songs, particularly “God Is In The Roses,” “The World Unseen,” “Like Fugitives” and “World Without Sound,” will speak to anyone familiar with the experience.