Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (Xtra Mile Recordings)
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| Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues |
Well, this was totally worth the
wait. You see, I've been eagerly anticipating this album since reviewing their
single 'FUCKMYLIFE666' a few weeks back and my eagerness was well founded as
'Transgender Dysphoria Blues' is one hell of a rock'n'roll album. 'Talking
Transgender Dysphoria Blues' has bouncing drums, rolling guitars and a spirit
that is like Crazy Arm, Frank Turner or Springsteen at their most rambunctious
and fist pumping. 'True Trans Soul Rebel' picks up the thread and adds to the
fire before 'Unconditional Love' takes thing down half a notch for a more
West-Coast punk sing-a-long that has something a little Green Day-ish about it.
But if you like your punk a bit more in your face then switch straight to
'Drinking With The Jocks' for rapid fire drums and guitars that could only have
been played with legs as far astride as physically possible. Bringing their
legs slightly closer together, Against Me! strike up an anthemic pose for the provocatively
entitled 'Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ' with its repeated refrain of
"You're gonna hang, you're gonna hang".
Recent single 'FUCKMYLIFE666' is
steeped in hope and defiance while 'Dead Friend' has an appealing country-punk twang
to it which entirely explains why this band have been such natural tour
partners with label partners Crazy Arm. Staying on the mortality tip, 'Two
Coffins' rolls in acoustically with a sense of love so undying that all you can
imagine is being arm in arm with someone until you get buried next to each
other - morbid but romantic, if you look past the mere rotting flesh issue and
focus on the everlasting soul. 'Paralytic States' stomps through my headphones
like an unrelenting army while closing track 'Black Me Out' starts out like
Maximo Park before building in to a stadium sized rock anthem perfect to close
a set to with a mass of people singing along and waving mobile phones in time
with the beat. This is the first great rock album of 2014 and I think, come the
end of 2014, it will still be up there in my top 3. Now I just need a road trip
to fully test this out...
More information: http://www.againstme.net/