(via Shutterstock)
I love Pride!
I love the fact that in a world that, for all the progress the LGBTQI+ community has made, still feels addicted to the idea that we are wrong, broken or god-knows-what, we can celebrate the fact that we are not any of the things they say and that we are fabulous, amazing, wonderful people with lots to give and lots to glory and be happy in.
It’s our chance to shout to the world that we matter, that we are glorious and that we are not abherations or abominations or anything terrible but simple people who march to the beat of gorgeously colourful, rainbow-striped drum and that we are loving life and who we are.
It’s a great thing to celebrate and even better when you have amazing music to celebrate it with, which we certainly do thanks to these five amazingly immersive, alive, and melodically and lyrically rich songs which will stay with us, and hopefully you, long after the Pride month of June has run its course …
“Voices” (feat. Kylie Minogue) by Jake Shears
(courtesy official Jake Shears Facebook site)
Jake Shears, onetime co-lead singer of Scissor Sister whom I encountered way back in 2004 when I was staying in Kuala Lumpur for six weeks for work and had only a music and a news channel for company (I loved them instantly by honestly, how could you not?) has a new album, Last Man Dancing, out.
And with a new album, come all kinds of delicious singles including this gem, “Voices”, on which he gets the iconic Kylie Minogue, who has a new album, Tension, impending, and a new single “Padam Padam” making eminently deserving waves, which is one of those slices of harmonic pop perfection that beg to be played again and again.
And danced to, and kiss with it playing in the background and party to, which makes sense when you understand what inspired the album it’s drawn from as a whole.
“It’s inspired by all the over-the-top house parties I’ve thrown throughout my life. I was born to host, I love to DJ and my favourite hours of a party are from 4-6am. There’s nothing more luxurious than being as loud as you want in the early hours. Not everyone might make it to the end, but the last ones dancing are possibly rewarded with the most magical moments of the evening.” (Q News)
An interview with Jake Shears …
“We Could Be the One” by Dannii Minogue
(courtesy official Dannii Minogue Facebook page)
Dannii Minogue has released a compulsively danceable track in “We Could Be the One”, one of those euphorically uplifting track that makes you acutely aware your feet were for dancing.
In fact, when the song starts playing, you have to wonder why you aren’t dancing more often because when this track really kicks into high mode, its clip all sun-drenched hedonism, smiles and rainbow sequins, it removes from the glum banality of reality instantly and makes the world feel one big soul-reviving party with all kinds of joy-inducing possibility.
It’s superbly well-crafted ephemeral dancefloor pop that represents her first single release since 2017, notes Retropop, and her surprising appearance with sister Kylie at World Pride in Sydney a little earlier this year.
It’s the theme song for the singer’s new gay dating show, I Kissed a Boy, and represents another collaboration with longtime musical partner, Ia n Masterson, who serves up a glorious ’90s vibe that resonates in a world needing a heady dose of escapist musicality.
“In Electric Blue” by Alison Goldfrapp
(courtesy official Instagram account)
Alison Goldfrapp is one of the long-time artists who never drops the ball when it comes to memorably listenable tracks that feel ethereally melodic and yet packed with the emotion of several lifetimes, all brought to life by a voice that lives the songs and doesn’t just sing them.
It’s that totality of her musical approach, first as the vocalist of the eponymous electro-music duo Goldfrapp (with Will Gregory) and now as a solo artist.
Her new album, Love Invention, has a lot of beautifully lush pop tracks on it, and as this clip demonstrates, gorgeously colourful clips to go with them, including “In Electric Blue”, an all wraparound marriage of driving upbeat electro beats, vocal emotionality and some intimately personal lyrics (“I’m only in this world if it’s with you”).
Alison has described the blissfully full-on track thus:
“It makes me think of shiny cars, and that rush of energy and elation you have as a teenager.” (Retropop)
It captures the feel of the song beautifully, elation everywhere and the sense that everything is possible when the song is playing … and who knows, maybe it is?
“Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” by Trixie Mattel
(courtesy official Trixie Mattel YouTube channel)
When you a member of the LGBTQI+ family, it can be easily to feel like there’s something wrong with you.
Not because there is actually something wrong with you – clearly there’s not and we all know it even if the bigots and haters don’t – but because we’ve been told much of our lives that we’re deficient morally or other ill-defined that exist only in the fetid imaginations of those with no love in their hearts.
So it is always welcome when someone as fabulously out-there as Trixie Mattel, a drag queen , singer-songwriter and TV personality with the kind of huge persona you want to embrace, releases a song like “Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” which screams from the rooftop that we are good and we are gorgeous and we are going to have a flamboyantly upbeat time declaring to anyone who will listen.
Complete with a clip that captures the fun of a high-energy club performance, “Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” is one those songs that feel like a world of euphoric self acceptance, joyful exuberance and self affirmation that remind we are all that and more and no one’s taking it away from us.
“You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Adam Lambert x Sigala
(courtesy official Adam Lambert Instagram page)
If you’re going to create an anthem, and in this case one for London Pride 2023, then you need to go ALL OUT.
Which is precisely what Adam Lambert does, with the impressive assistance of English DJ and record producer Sigala, with his high-octane, disco-ball glittering, discotastic cover of American disco/R&B singer Sylvester’s 1978 chart stormer “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”.
The original song was the sort of song that drove you on the dance floor in a nanosecond and Lambert keeps all the best bits and buffs them to an ecstatic sheen in a track that feels like all the good things of the world wrapped up in a joyously sky high package that makes you feel like a million bucks which is exactly the intent, according to Pride in London’s CEO, Christopher Joell-Deshields.
“Adam’s songs are all about inspiring others to be who they truly are, which couldn’t be more fitting following the launch of our campaign, Never March Alone, which shows allyship for the trans community.” (Retropop)
In the moment a song like this plays, you do feel like you can be exactly who you are, and hopefully so inspired, you go out to live that truth and bring that realness to a life that deserves to be loved as loudly and wonderfully as possible.
EUROVISION UPDATE!!
Hands down one of the best performances of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, and no, I’m not just saying that because I am from their country of residence, Australia’s Voyager made a real name for themselves with their enthusiasm, energy and sheer wonderfulness, musically and as a people.
Is that the end of their Eurovision story? That would be a hard no, with Eurovision revealing that the band from Western Australia have crafted a “a special electro version of “Te Deum” [for use] on [Eurovision’s] YouTube Premiere countdowns that absolutely soars and rocks and all the good things.
For Voyager, creating the new YouTube premiere countdown music for the EBU is an absolute compositional highlight. To be able to forge the original Te Deum theme with some beautiful ambient sounds, ‘80s synths, soaring Floyd-esque guitars and a ramping of suspense was very special. It’s a nod to ESCs past, present and future and it elicits that warm feeling of anticipation that we all know and love: “it’s Eurovision time”! (Eurovision.tv)