Here’s the soundtrack to your (hopefully!) sun-soaked weekend ☀️
BY ELEANOR NOYCE, IMAGE BY PIP
It’s that time of the week again! Happy Friday. In this week’s music round-up of the week, we have everything from Lizzo to King Princess, and it’s inundated with queer delight. Enjoy!
Pale Waves – Reasons To Live
Taken from their new album, Unwanted, due for release on 12 August via Dirty Hit, Reasons To Live is fresh from Manchester-based goths, Pale Waves. “Reasons To Live is about a time when I felt truly drained and incapable of happiness,” explains frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie, “then I found someone who showed me a reason to live.” Notably, both Heather and Ciara are queer, with previous track She’s My Religion channelling sapphic lust at its finest.
Ginny Lemon – Burnt Pizza
Ginny Lemon is nothing short of iconic, and the moment they Ben De La Crème-d themselves on Drag Race UK, peacing out to You Keep Me Hangin’ On by Kim Wilde will stay in our hearts forever. Now, they return with their latest hit Burnt Pizza, with the video featuring Ginny wearing nothing other than a custom-made gimp suit and custom high knee crocs. This is a true queer club anthem, perfect for welcoming in the summer.
King Princess – Too Bad & Cursed
Let’s go, lesbians! King Princess is back. Sharing two tracks this week in the form of Too Bad and Cursed, KP confirmed the release date of her new album, For My Friends, for 29 July. “I’ve only ever written about heartbreak. It felt easier to talk about myself through other people. To write about situations that caused me pain, and to use them to justify my own anxieties and depression”, she shared.
“It finally reached a point where I had to turn the barrel on myself. I’m silly, I’m anxious, I’m sad, I’m sexy. I didn’t want to be scared to talk about those things anymore. The infinite dichotomy of things that make me up. I’m not a girl, not quite a boy, a lesbian, but also gay as the day is long.”
Cat Burns & Sam Smith – go
It’s Pride Month, DIVAs! Cat Burns and Sam Smith have collaborated on a stripped-back version of go, and it’s the perfect soundtrack to kick it all off. Cat’s original recording charted in the Top 5 of the Official Singles Chart for a total of 11 weeks. Speaking about Cat, Sam shares: “I came across Cat’s music earlier this year and I was immediately moved and refreshed by her honesty, incredible technique and delivery as a vocalist. I am so thankful to be a very small part of this special song and moment. Cat is a gift to us all.”
The Aces – Girls Make Me Wanna Die
Fresh from alt-pop group The Aces, Girls Make Me Wanna Die is the ultimate queer anthem, with three out of four of the group sharing a queer experience. Further exploring their poppier side, The Aces are touring across the US this Pride season. “‘Girls Make Me Wanna Die’ is a nostalgic call back to our adolescence and shared experience of being young, queer, and painfully in love with your best friend. Everyone remembers that feeling. So many ‘what if’s’, so much longing. Every single look and touch meant something. We wanted this song to feel desperate and full of youth, so we stripped it down to how everything started back when we were kids, jamming in the basement. Guitar, drums, bass, and a distorted vocal”, the group shared.
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