Review: Against Me – Transgender Dysphoria Blues

BY KATIE LERNER

The punk/alternative rock band Against Me! originated in Gainesville, Florida in 1997. The band independently released three studio albums, but then moved to Fat Wreck Chords and finally a major labor, Sire Records, in 2007. Their major labor debut New Wave reached number 57 on the Billboard 200 soon after. A couple years later, their fifth album, White Crosses reached number 34 on the Billboard 200 chart. They recently created their own record label, “Total Treble Music,” and on January 21st, 2014, they released their sixth studio album Transgender Dysphoria Blues.

In 2012, lead singer Tom Gabel publicly came out as a male to female transgender, and became Laura Jane Grace. The new album reflects the recent change in Grace’s life. Transgender Dysphoria Blues builds from raw acoustic folk punk into glam punk that speaks volumes of desperation, even on the songs that don’t directly concern Grace’s transgender journey. The new album steers away from the sound of previous records and into an entirely new direction. Against Me! has begun to sound more like the Sex Pistols and less like the Foo Fighters, who they resembled before.

There is so much rage and angst in Grace’s voice and lyrics, with lines such as “You’ve got no hips to shake,” and “they hold their breath not to catch the sick.” Here, Grace is spilling out all of her struggles into her new music and has truly created something beautiful. Transgender Dysphoria Blues brings real music with real meaning. The quick paced, distorted guitars and upbeat gang-vocal style make this album almost breathtaking. The record holds a big middle finger up to society and has a stick-it-to-the-man tone, which one would say is fresh, new, and well appreciated. This is especially true in this day and age, when many have begun to consider punk dead.  Against Me! have shown us once again that it is not.

The one problem with this album, though, is the fact that not all the songs have to do with being transgender. Yet, that’s what the album is supposed to be geared towards. For example, the album could have gone without the song “Black Me Out,” in which Grace sings about her previous record label and doesn’t fit into the transgender theme.

Overall, Transgender Dysphoria Blues is a wild album. It is different from most of the music coming out in 2014. In it, now front woman Laura Jane Grace speaks the truth and most people will acknowledge how difficult that is to do in our current society.