LGBTQ+ Albums for you: Episode 2

There are so many brilliant LGBTQ+ artists out there, and over the next few weeks we're going to showcase some of our favourites! It's week 2 of our mini series of album recommendations, and today we're giving some love to Ryan Beatty.

Happy listening!

Kian

Calico (2023) - Ryan Beatty

True love will last and rain down on Beatty’s most recent project. With only nine tracks, this album is more novella than Great American Novel, but it tells its story of love’s deception just as heartily. Opening the album with the question: “What can I tell you?” on Ribbons, there is a distinct conversationality to this project that carves a window out of the fourth-wall so that the listener is afforded a glimpse through.

Beatty’s third instalment is a largely acoustic effort, with falsetto that glosses his lyrics in a lightness of familiarity even within his heartbreaking next question in Bruises on the Peach: “Did it ever have to do with me?” At times, Beatty’s monsooning is “Close as a kiss on the lips”, especially in the sweet Cinnamon Bread.

Soliquising spirals on with our third question to answer on Andromeda: “What stops me from sending the call, in a midnight paranoia? / Hey, that’s love after all, isn’t it?” Yet, the following Bright Red and Hunter ask no questions at all, attributing more starriness to Andromeda in retrospect. Not for long, though, as Beatty has us over at his place on White Teeth, flashing the question: “What’s our code name?” in a return to the confusion that so often follows the clarity of dreaming.

Calico’s denouement has Multiple Endings: “Was it all just a dream?” is option number one, while the alternative is “Was it all in my head?” Beatty is trying to work it out, to answer all of his own questions. Turns out, he can’t. Beatty realises this with his resounding “Oh” before leading into Little Faith. Once and for all, “What is it gonna take?” to get over this great love - going through jewellery boxes and throwing out dead plants to get to the root of it all. And when he finally does, he realises love will strike again. Have a little faith.

Standout tracks: Andromeda, White Teeth, Little Faith

Check back next week for our next album review - or send in your own favourite queer music picks! You can submit one-off blog posts or even become a regular content contributor by filling out this form!