CW: Depictions of blood, knives, mention of suicide, mental health struggles, riots, queer themes (gasp!)
A bit of a random start, but I have family up in Boston, Massachusetts. You may have seen somewhere on the site my attempt to recreate some Boston ephemera, I quite like the city (check the homepage!) When I went to Boston in 2017 I had a sort of unofficial song, ‘Money, money, money’ by ABBA. My brother played it in the car and I played it on loop while I took the train into the city and walked around. In 2019 that song was Revolution Lover by Left at London, abbreviated to /@/ throughout the rest of this review as the artist wishes. The song was off the first Transgender Street Legend album, and I distinctly remember listening to it while waiting for a red line subway and feeling pretty good about life, pre pandemic and pre transition.
In the time since /@/ has put out lots more great music, including 2 new Transgender Street Legend EP’s. I thought instead of just reviewing the first one I’d review all 3 at the same time! Here are my thoughts on each upon relisten.
At just 4 songs compared to volume 3’s 5 and volume 2’s 7, transgender street legend volume 1 is the shortest. It also feels the most up-tempo. Revolution lover and I don’t trust u anymore tackle some deep topics of anarchy and feeling betrayed by authority while still being catchy. I split my ribs open is more serious, while Waiting on a ghost feels like the most heartfelt. All of these songs clearly come from a place of passion, but maybe not from a place of sadness like the next 2. Does that make sense? I don’t know I’m not qualified enough to talk about these subjects.
It’s important to note that I followed the artist on twitter ever since the release of the first Transgender Street Legend, it gives some good context. You probably followed her somewhere, too, she had a large presence on vine. During 2020 she was living in Seattle, near the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. The summer of 2020 were full of protests against police brutality and control after the murder of George Floyd and countless other people of color by police, protests she was on the front line of. I am a white woman, my qualification for talking about this is low, but I’m keen enough to hear the dripping anger and vitriol for the police of Seattle. Basically, it’s songs for a riot, especially Do you see us? The entire EP is full of this energy, featuring more synth beats over the guitar featured prominently in the first EP. I don’t remember as many songs as the first EP off this one, but I wasn’t listening to it as much, Safety First still goes through my playlists, though, it’s a bop.
I was in college when volume 3 came out, I was in college. I think it came out in the summer but I didn’t hear it until the fall when I saw it was out on twitter. I had liked t.i.a.p.f.y.h, her debut full length album, and volume 3 delivered more of the same but with a distinct tone. The first song is about a therapist telling off one of his patients, driving him to being committed for a suicide attempt, and the entire thing is told through the lens of a joke. Also, that chorus is still rooted deep in my brain, the change from the trained voice to natural register is what makes her, truly, a transgender street legend.
I’ll see myself out.
The album covers imagery of cleaning a bloody knife adds to the meaning behind the ep, the songs are a personal look into the artists mental state, and making this part of a series lets you see how its changed, from a sort of cautious optimism to fighting to suffering. I’m also not an expert on mental health, I’m sure someone else has written something much more comprehensive on the subject in relation to this ep, I just think the songs are good
I think of all these albums together, as a trilogy that flows from one to the other, painting a portrait of the artist. And for all the imagery, the angst and the anger and the struggles, the songs are also really damn catchy. Theres this phenomena I see every now and again where a piece of art with deep meanings to the creator gets taken out of its original context, or the meaning ignored because it’s got a catchy beat and you can dance to it. I mean, in the act of creating art it’s going to be reinterpreted in ways you might not have expected, in ways you might not like. Listen to these EPs and listen for the meaning, if you’d like. Or listen to the great composition, or the instruments, or however you want to enjoy the art she put out there. It’s available for streaming and purchase everywhere, and I believe Needlejuice is doing a trilogy boxset sometime this year, which I will happily be purchasing.
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