Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Transgender Dysphoria Blues is the sixth studio album by American punk rock band Against Me!, released on January 21, 2014 by Total Treble Music and Xtra Mile Recordings.
The album deals with gender dysphoria, following Laura Jane Grace's gender transition and coming out.
| Transgender Dysphoria Blues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 21, 2014 | |||
| Recorded | Total Treble Studios, Elkton, Florida Studio 606, Los Angeles, California Earthsound Recording, Valdosta, GA Motor Studios, San Francisco, CA | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 28:43 | |||
| Label | Total Treble, Xtra Mile | |||
| Producer | Laura Jane Grace | |||
| Against Me! chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Transgender Dysphoria Blues | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
 Censored version | ||||
Recording and production
The band first announced work on a new album in November 2011. The first sessions for the album were a false start, where the band started recording some basic tracks and then went on tour, and decided to scrap and start over when they got back from tour. Then, the record was completely recorded except for vocals when drummer Jay Weinberg quit the band. The band first tried to have fill-in drummer Atom Willard record drum tracks to match the previously recorded tracks, but it wasn't working. Starting from scratch, the band began recording the album a final time at Studio 606 in February 2013. In May 2013, long-time bassist Andrew Seward also left the band. A month later, Fat Mike of NOFX joined the band in the studio, playing on three songs, two of which appear on the album. That same month, tracking for the album was completed.
Commercial performance
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 23, their highest debut yet on the chart. It also debuted at No. 6 on Top Rock Albums, with 10,000 copies sold in its first week. It has sold 45,000 copies in the United States as of August 2016.
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10 |
| Metacritic | 82/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | B+ |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
| The Guardian |  |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10 |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | 8/10 |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Transgender Dysphoria Blues received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 from 28 critic scores. In his review for Now Magazine, Joshua Kloke described the record as having "career-defining clarity" and "increased confidence," writing that "Grace looks inward and employs conviction unheard since their 2002 debut, Reinventing Axl Rose." Will Hermes of Rolling Stone rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, and called it "A series of bracing songs about a self-destructive girl in a boy's body, it's a thematic offspring of Lou Reed (see Berlin, etc.)", and noted how "it takes balls to come out this way, in this genre" wishing Laura "God-speed, sister." Also, Hermes said that the album musically "sticks to the band's established brand of warrior-cry punk metal", and this "limits the range of what might be an ever braver new world, one glimpsed on the softer acoustic 'Two Coffins.'" Dan Weiss of Spin called the album "one of the most fascinating records of the year," rating it eight out of ten.
In 2019, Loudwire ranked the album 23 in their "66 best rock albums of the decade."
Accolades
| Publication | Rank | List |
|---|---|---|
| American Songwriter | 20 | Top 50 Albums of 2014 |
| Consequence of Sound | 6 | Top 50 Albums of 2014 |
| Noisey | 2 | Top 25 Albums of 2014 |
| PopMatters | 6 | The 80 Best Albums of 2014 |
| Rolling Stone | 15 | 50 Best Albums of 2014 |
| Spin | 14 | 50 Best Albums of 2014 |
| Stereogum | 14 | The 50 Best Albums of 2014 |
| TIME | 7 | Top 10 Best Albums of 2014 |
| The Village Voice | 10 | Pazz+Jop Albums of 2014 |
Track listing
All tracks are written by Laura Jane Grace
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" (often erroneously titled "Talking Transgender Dysphoria Blues") | 3:16 |
| 2. | "True Trans Soul Rebel" | 3:12 |
| 3. | "Unconditional Love" | 2:51 |
| 4. | "Drinking with the Jocks" | 1:48 |
| 5. | "Osama bin Laden as the Crucified Christ" | 2:57 |
| 6. | "FUCKMYLIFE666" | 2:56 |
| 7. | "Dead Friend" | 3:02 |
| 8. | "Two Coffins" | 2:20 |
| 9. | "Paralytic States" (also known as "Paralytic States of Dependency") | 3:12 |
| 10. | "Black Me Out" | 3:09 |
| Total length: | 28:43 | |
Personnel
Band
- Laura Jane Grace – lead vocals, guitar, bass (except for 2 tracks), art direction, producer
- James Bowman – guitar, backing vocals
- Atom Willard – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
- Fat Mike – bass (tracks 3, 6)
Production and design
- Billy Bush – recording engineer
- Steak Mtn – design, typography, and illustration
Charts
| Chart (2014) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 89 |
| US Billboard 200 | 23 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) | 2 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) | 6 |
| US Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) | 2 |
References
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
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