Title: Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Format Reviewed: Pre-Release Stream
Format Release: 21st January 2014
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten
I have been sat at my keyboard for a good forty-five minutes, mulling over how to open this review. Transgender Dysphoria Blues is without a doubt going to be one of the most talked-about records of 2014, and Against Me! are going to be one of the most talked-about bands. At the same time, this is going to be one of the biggest, and definitely one of the most significant, albums of the year.
To provide some context: in 2012, Tom Gabel, the Floridian four-piece's vocalist, came out publicly as transgender. This is the first album since Tom's transition to live as a woman began, and the first album in which Laura-Jane Grace is the lead singer.
To summarise, Transgender Dysphoria Blues is thirty minutes of proud, defiant, and brutally involving rock music. It does not shy away from the issues it wants to address. It stands them down, with a fierce tenacity the like of which is far from common in twenty-first century rock music.
It is, consequently, a refreshing antidote to what could be seen as an exceedingly mundane and grey musical landscape. The genuine honesty this album contains is, depressingly, almost alien in the musical world. What seems to be lacking nowadays is the perception that if you really pour your heart and soul into art, it's going to be beyond compare. Laura-Jane has very clearly done that here, to simply spellbinding effect. It's a hugely emotive album which you can't simply put on in the background. It's one that needs to be properly appreciated, properly listened to, and properly absorbed.
As yet, I have barely even touched on the actual songs here. The album opens with Transgender Dysphoria Blues, a brilliantly dynamic and assertive track which immediately presents the listener with the familiar Against Me! style, but with the extra clarity of message Grace's experiences are likely to bring. It's an exceptionally strong opener, this, carried along by a near-marching beat. This in itself provides food for thought: the track is hugely unconstrained by this marching beat, perhaps representative of Grace's transition.
Lyrically, too, the song doesn't hold back, the message loud and clear. It's savagely, brutally honest. It's shockingly frank. And it's violently affecting.
True Trans Soul Rebel has a healthy dose of punk-rock sprinkled over it. Here we have a hugely catchy track, one which appeals immediately with its brazen riffs, feeling as though they're almost hailing the dawn of a new horizon. It's a soaring, melodic track in which Laura-Jane's (as yet vastly unchanged) voice smoothes over the jagged edges of the guitars.
The album's third track, Unconditional Love, adds elements of rock'n'roll to the mix. A simple, easy-to-remember chorus with a dark message is backed up by backing gang-shouts. Laura-Jane pretty much talks over the music here, delivering her message with clinical effectiveness. Drinking With The Jocks, however, turns this about-face. It's a massively aggressive track, with razor-sharp guitar and the grittiest of barked vocals. Somehow, though, the song (and, indeed, all ten on this record) manage to keep 'on-song', all being very clearly Against Me! songs yet all being unique in their own right, too. It's a rare skill and one which is perfectly executed in Transgender Dysphoria Blues.
Fuckmylife666 has a more overtly downbeat tone to it, the chorus and verses conjuring up images in my head of heavy rain battering at a sole brightly coloured flower in a world of grey. Dead Friend and Two Coffins continue that trend, stark songs which offer no solace to the listener. Paralytic States has that 'sunrise after the storm' feel to it, a slightly cautiously optimistic tone pervading the song. It's a song which displays the tenderness the whole album showcases perfectly.
The final of the ten tracks is Black Me Out, another hugely involving song carrying further melancholy. It does have, however, a spark in it's eye, with lyrics such as "I wanna piss on the walls of your house" showing a glimmer of sunshine.
So, how to conclude?
What we have here is a piece of art which is so much more than the sum of it's part. This is not just a piece of music. This is a movement. It's a manifesto.
It is also one of the most emotionally involving records I've heard in a long time. It's a record which bares Laura-Jane's soul, displays all her scars, and displays, proudly and defiantly, vulnerabilities. It's the story of strength.
What Against Me! (and Laura-Jane) have done here is take on the world. They've taken on issues deemed perhaps too 'difficult' to discuss. They've done it proudly. They've done it defiantly. And they've done it quite simply stunningly.
If you believe in good, you will buy this album. You will support this cause. And you will appreciate a true masterpiece.
Transgender Dysphoria Blues is out on 21st January 2014
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