I Was Just Comforting Her

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:10:00 +0000

During my exploits as a queer culture addict, I’ve heard Gretchen Phillips’ name dropped multiple times, generally paired with admiration and approval, but I never went so far as to investigate the source of her praise. It turns out, her newest album, I Was Just Comforting Her, is an ideal model for a newcomer like me because it brings together the eclectic variety of her extensive music career through careful and quirky genre-blending, while keeping true to the lyrical themes she knows best.

I Was Just Comforting Her, a ten-track album sporting a charmingly gay portrait of Gretchen in flannel kissing a tree, and a simple, distinguished line drawing of a cat, revisits the artist’s past and lends a new hope, both politically and personally, to the present and future. Her musical experimentation offers a certain mysticism to the album in that from song-to-song, you don’t know if you’re going to get a drowsy love song reminiscent of Emmylou Harris or a jumpy electronic pop hit musing on the bipartisan polarity of red and blue states. As with many of her songs, she juxtaposes the raw emotions and frustration that comes with yearning for the incommunicable with quick-witted irony and beats you can bop your head to.

I Was Just Comforting Her speaks to the wide range of sensations that are provoked by self-exploration and the boundaries and connections we share with the people around us. In the track “Burning Inside,” her on-point lyrics adroitly convey the day-to-day perplexity, anger, and alienation that comes with feeling condensed, misunderstood, and at a loss for the right answers. In several songs on the album, she explores the anxiety and grief of relationships gone sour, and the heartache spawned by alcoholism and the borders that push us farther away from the people we love.

What I appreciate most about the album is how clear it is through her instrumentals and lyrics that she’s having fun. Whether providing a poppy anecdote on beating up a guy on a bus who got too cheeky, or a sultry, no-nonsense dedication to a swimming instructor pervading her wet dreams, her songs provide entertainment for the listeners and the creator.

Written by: Renee Leonowicz, May 27th 2009

Speak!

admin — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:15:00 +0000

By Radical Women of Color Media Collective

Liquid Words Studios

“Necesito gritar!” bellows Adele Nieves in response to the question she poses with her spoken word piece entitled “Why Do You Speak?”, which is the first track on the album. Through the unrestrained strength and rage smoldering behind every word, Adele provides a call to action against the overwhelming powers of erasure, invisibility, and silence that is exhaustively pushed upon women of color for centuries. Speak!, an explosive powerhouse of an album created by the Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective, uses spoken word, song, and poetry to detail the ins and outs of oppression and intersecting injustices, personal and collective struggle, and the redeeming powers of love, conviction, and pride.

Each piece pulses with vitality and pure unbridled emotion, whether somber or tempestuous in tone and content. The album in its entirety promotes the importance and the force of women’s voices, elaborate and concealed histories, and personal and collaborative forms of resistance. The individual artists weave together testimonies on their personal experiences with discrimination and hate, the dissolution of their intricate identities in favor of assimilation, and their reclamations of self and radicalization in a way that further illuminates the falsehood of the 'American Dream', as well as the continued necessity for political mobilization.

Pieces like “Slip” reveal the relationship between language and violence, showing the ways words embody hate and act as catalysts to brutality. Furthermore, many of the works analyze the ways the lives of women of color are invalidated statistically, in academic and political arenas, and in the day-to-day interactions with other people. Not only are there clear and poignant narratives on cultural genocide and racist and sexist hypocrisy, there is also a spirited display of hope, inspiration, and community in the face of the often crippling effects of adversity.

Ultimately, the passionate messages of beauty, love, and a constant determination to survive and prosper resound throughout the album. Coming out, the listener is motivated to assume their right to organize and to treat their illustrious identities as personal and political sustenance.

SPEAK is having a listening party in Brooklyn tonight. Wanna go?

Written by: Renee Leonowicz, May 16th 2009