Editor's Picks 11/6: Willi Carlisle, Lydia Loveless, Robin Shakedown
Every week, Rainbow Rodeo editor Rachel Cholst picks the three best queer country albums of the week. This week features universal bubbas, enduring accolades, and one trustworthy music that's one of Rachel's favorite albums of the year.
Each week, editor Rachel Cholst picks the best queer country to send you off into your weekend.
Willi Carlisle – The Universal Bubba
Willi Carlisle is one of the few people I trust with a double album, and The Universal Bubba is indeed one of the best (or two of the best?) to come out this year. It's Carlisle's finest work yet, with songs ranging from the autobiographical to the downright silly: a celebration of country music's ability to speak to a hard truth with folksy language ("Red Leather, Yellow Leather," and "She Only Loves Horses.") But there is also the tragedy of lives crushed under the weight of the American Dream, as well as the contentment and deep loneliness of living life on your own terms. The Bubba, in Carlisle's conception, perseveres through it all, because there is a Bubba in all of us. We can learn to reach beyond our internal borders, like in "Malrboro Vinyasa," or we can die of smallness, like in "Use Me Up." But perhaps, through it all, we can transcend into the revolution foretold in "the master's Hammer," one of the finest songs released this year. Add to it the hard-hitting confidence of the Food Stamps, Tyler Childer's rough-and-tumble production sensibilities, and the ways Carlisle shapes his voice into an instrument: at times raspy, at times bourbon-smooth. The Universal Bubba is what country music is for.
Lydia Loveless – Accolades
Nobody makes ennui sound as good as Lydia Loveless. On Accolades, they channel their inner torch singer for an examination of that curious asymptotic approach to adulthood. There are small triumphs, contentment in acts of kindness, but also regrets. "Avoiding Highways" showcases Loveless' incredible voice, while "Accolades" finds them rolling the roads smoothly. At the end of the day, it's both the ups and the downs that make life living – that's all that's left once the accolades come and go.
Robin Shakedown – I Don't Know Lady, I Just Work Here
I am fairly confident this is my favorite album of the year. Robin Shakedown encapsulates the angst of living in a society that makes it abundantly clear it doesn't care about us. High rent, low pay, the existential threat of AI – and the determination to create at any cost, because that is what makes us human. Whether it's Shakedown's growling homage to glam rock in "Hard Rock" or the breathy blues of "Ordinary Fool," this is, as Shakedown's statement points out, "trustworthy music" – music that is relatable and attainable. Then there's the breathtaking transcendence of "Ruthless" – a respite from the intensity of the preceding 11 tracks that samples the NYC crosswalk's admonition to "wait!" It's the kind of intentionality and careful observation of a true artist: transforming the mundane into something that can change our worldview. Something only a human can make.
