NEW ADDS: Trixie Mattel, girl in red, & more!
Trixie Mattel - Full Coverage, Vol. 1
It’s an established, if unfortunate, fact that mainstream drag queens’ musical endeavors just aren’t very good. Rupaul’s insistence on using exclusively her own recordings as incidental music on Drag Race may help the show’s producers keep licensing fees down, but it doesn’t make for a particularly memorable or exciting soundtrack. Sure, there’s camp value in the novelty songs generated by the show--which has, regrettably, come to stand in for the entirety of drag culture--like Tatianna’s “The Same Parts,” or Katya’s verse on “Read U Wrote U,” but it’s vanishingly rare for a Ru girl to come out with music that stands on its own merit.
That’s part of what makes Trixie Mattel such a welcome presence. The northern Wisconsin-raised, Los Angeles-based queen is best known for her over-the-top, dollish makeup and for winning season three of Rupaul’s Drag Race: All Stars after appearing on the seventh season of the original show. But equally laudable is her country music career, which began in earnest with the 2017’s Two Birds, a folky seven-track album of original songs. Since then, she’s released two more studio albums and an EP of original Christmas songs. The latest addition to the Mattel line, released Friday, is Full Coverage, Vol. 1, a four-track, multi-genre collection of cover songs.
The first cover the EP offers is Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games,” which Mattel revitalizes with a faster tempo, upbeat country guitar, and her signature jangly autoharp strums. The cover maintains the ethereal, nostalgic aura of the original, but rescues it from Del Rey’s indulgent lugubriousness. The second track, a pop-punkish cover of Violent Femmes’ heroin addiction bop “Blister in the Sun,” zeroes in on the song’s off-kilter peppiness, and Mattel belts out the lyrics in a bratty voice through a tinny, radio static filter. On track three, Mattel reinterprets Cher’s “Believe” as a melancholy country ballad, singing over delicately finger-picked acoustic guitar rather than employing the original song’s autotune. These three covers are formidable and clever and, in the case of “Video Games,” may even come to replace the originals in my listening habits. But the crown jewel of Full Coverage is its final track, “Jackson.” Written by midcentury pop and country songwriters Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber, the song’s most enduring edition was recorded by Johnny Cash and June Carter. On Mattel’s EP, she and the masked gay alt-country star Orville Peck take on the duet. Peck’s deep, resonant twang compliments Mattel’s bright tenor, and they embody Cash and Carter’s playful affection through lines and ad-libs like “Go play your hand you big-talkin' man / Make a big fool of yourself (And so what if do?)” Musically, Mattel and Peck’s version isn’t doing anything new. But for fans of Johnny and June, and of the country wave that’s been sweeping across queer pop culture of late, it’s a treat.
- Lucy Talbot Allen, Music Writing Director
RIYL: Orville Peck, The Chicks, Pansy Division
Recommended Tracks: 1, 4
FCC: Clean
girl in red - "Serotonin"
Last weekend, my incredible cousin and I were speeding down the Musical Road in Lancaster, California with no gas in the tank and 6 miles before the next station. I did not want to be stranded in Antelope Valley and was perplexed that we had been so spaced as to let the tank get so empty. We sat still as the car sped, too scared to say anything that might jinx our car’s life.
The radio, which in retrospect should have been turned off, was blasting Top 40. In between Dua Lipas and Doja Cats, the DJ introduced a song by 22-year-old Norwegian pop star girl in red. The track is called “Serotonin,” and it is honestly the most unhinged song I have ever heard in my life. When the bridge, “I get Intrusive thoughts / Like burning my hair off / Like hurting somebody I love / Like does it ever really stop?” played uncensored through the speakers, I was stunned. I could not believe that these kinds of lyrics could be played on the radio.
It reminded me of my junior year of high school, when I was driving home from work and Logic’s infamous suicide awareness song, “1-800-273-8255” played on the radio. I only heard the beginning of the song, where Logic sings “I don’t want to be alive, I just want to die today,” to an incredibly catchy beat. The lyrics to “Serotonin” made me laugh uncomfortably in the same way-- I read them to my cousin while she filled up our tank. It confused us why anyone would want to listen to such tacky, depressing music.
This discomfort might actually be really conservative of me. I feel like I am pushing family values in Reagan’s America. But seriously, canned lyrics like we have heard from Logic and girl in red are so so dumb and psychotic. I would love for them to take a lesson in show don’t tell, and refrain from specifically referencing a chemical imbalance or psychoactive prescription. The execution, especially on “Serotonin” is just tasteless. Intrusive thoughts can be cool if coded well (and still not really…), but hey, you don’t hear a lot of Elliot Smith on the radio anyway.
Regardless of the song’s bizarre lyrics and avant-garde bridge, which ends with a farcical ad lib, girl in red is actually cool. I won’t judge her for her disastrous first single. Her new album, “if i could make it go quiet” is actually really fun, and I can see her emerging among the leagues of Hayley Williams, Lorde and Billie Eilish. It’s great music for angst-ridden 14 year olds and embarrassingly earnest Tik Toks. 10/10 recommend listening, just because it’s FUN.
- Elle Davidson, Publications Director
RIYL: Paramore, Clairo, Billie Eilish
FCC: Clean
Gwendoline - "Chevalier Ricard"
Gwendoline is the project from Micka (a.k.a. Mikoune) and Pierre (a.k.a. Daniel). Based in Rennes, musically influenced by the classic cold wave which originated in their country, precarious and aimless, they shape Gwendoline to their own image.
Pure DIY ethics, quick recordings at their home studio. Dark lyrics, self-mockery, criticism, sarcasm derived from the world’s mediocrity.
Radiant Reveries - "Missing"
"Vogue enough to turn heads and vague enough to remain suspiciously relevant to a range of circumstances, “Missing” is passionate but cool, distinctive but catchy, the kind of song that belongs as the focal point of a James Bond title sequence..."
-Samantha Singh, Highlark
Flight of Icarus - Cleo
Imagine powerful pop songs in the vein of Roxette with a tasteful touch of Heart and Starship, all embedded in a massive fusion of orchestral metal reminiscent of Nightwish and Within Temptation.
The first single ”Our Burning Star” from the album was released at the start of February 2021 and "Fly Away" swiftly followed on 05/03. The title track "Cleo" is their current release (09/04/21)
Solos Absurdos - "Above the Sky in L.A."
Solos Absurdos is an LA based band releasing new tracks regularly. This is an acoustic driven song about UFOs.
Poet22 - "Crush"
Kala Lones, better known as “poet22” is a 19 year old RnB artist based out of Appleton, Wisconsin. Kala’s been singing since she was a kid and has always dreamed of becoming a professional singer. What first started off as short poems soon turned into song lyrics. She attributes her love for poetry as the catalyst for her songwriting. In 2019 she released her first project on SoundCloud entitled “Perfect Timing”, which will be followed by her first full length album Chrysalis in 2021. Poet22 finds that she’s often inspired by how her everyday situations make her feel; and plans to soon become a household name.