Editor's Picks 11/13: Lindsey Everly, Big Guy & The Very Large Men, Vandoliers
Every week, Rainbow Rodeo editor Rachel Cholst picks the three best queer country albums of the week. This week features grit that glitters, pop/country that transmutes pain into joy, and country punk that reaches into the future and the past.
Each week, editor Rachel Cholst picks the best queer country to send you off into your weekend.
Lindsay Everly – Fool's Gold
Lindsay Everly serves us honeyed Golden State country on Fool's Gold. While Everly may sing of heartbreak, missed connections, and unwanted attention, there is an air of breeziness, a cosmic cool: life may disappoint, but that could change at any time – even if all evidence points to the contrary. "Rich Man, Poor Man" is a timeless waltz with a timeless dilemma while "Miss, Ms, or Mrs?" gently skewers the patriarchy. But when you follow those up with the slinky grooves of "Gold Coast" and the title track, it's hard to stay down for long. Everly's voice is pure classic country, imbued with warmth and dimension that makes the everyday grit glitter just a little bit instead.
Big Guy & The Very Large Men – PERMADEATH
If there's one takeaway from PERMADEATH, it's not to get on James Droll's bad side – especially if you're James Droll. Droll's pop/country outfit Big Guy & The Very Large Men has something special cooking, as can be seen in last week's video drop. "RED DOOR" critiques Nashville industry sleaziness with loving detail and detached affection. It's songs like the title track and "CHOKE" where Droll saves his most scathing commentary – for his solipsism in former, and an ambivalent lover in the latter. There's humor here, though, with "me you and her" describing an actual, geometrically correct love triangle. Droll's ironic lyrics juxtaposed with the lush pop production give a sense of space to all of these heavy emotions, creating something beautiful in the pain, transforming wallowing into revelry.
Vandoliers – Afterglow
It appears to be Jenni Rose week here on Rainbow Rodeo! As Rose preps her new pop punk project Tomgirls, Afterglow, which was released this summer, serves as connective tissue between the two. "Girl on the Run" is an outlaw country trans pride album that sounds all the sweeter in the wake of Blexas. Meanwhile, "Together We Will Sink or Swim" sounds like a countri-fied Flogging Molly anthem (complimentary.) On the other hand, "Nobody's Fault But My Own" is a rare slow burner for the band that feels like it has been sung since the birth of country music (also complimentary). It's a fitting clutch of songs, memorializing Rose's coming out – and the attending relief, liberation, and solidarity.
