LGBTQ+ Albums that NEED to make your Spotify Wrapped this year: Episode 1

There are so many brilliant LGBTQ+ artists out there, and over the next few weeks we're going to showcase some of our favourites! Whether you’re looking for love, hunting for a houseparty corner to cry into or searching for some sweet relief, I guarantee there is something in these projects for you. Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll find the soundtrack to the next season of your life.

Happy listening!

Kian

Silence Between Songs (2023) - Madison Beer

Let’s get stuck in at the beginning of Spinnin’ (pun intended). If you’d rather live in your dreams, this is the album for you. Beer’s dizzy Sweet Relief is a plea for escape within a pounding conundrum of beats that beg for you to stay and play the track again. If you find your way out, you’ll be met with Beer’s pivotal postulation on Envy the Leaves: “Why don’t we lie and act like the best is yet to come?”

Beer is aflame with the burning hope that it does get better on Ryder, assuring that “I know it’s hard sometimes / But you’ll be alright / Oh, we’ll be alright.” This track is a reminiscence of childhood, and an ode to better days ahead for herself and her companion. A delicate outro leads into the soulful sonnet-like survival piece Nothing Matters But You, where Beer is grateful for love and companionship, and the strength of love from another encourages her to save herself: “If you never stop me / Then I’ll just keep falling.”

The grass is greener and air is sweeter on I Wonder, as Beer wonders why and how she feels so fine all of a sudden. Things are looking up for Beer on this princess-esque bright-side ballad. Showed Me (How I Fell in Love With You) is a moody mind palace of relatability: the green eyed monster of comparison crawls out of its dungeon as Beer exhales “You walk into a room and people fall for you / How I wanna be like you.”

Contrary to how one may expect, darkness is kept at bay on both Dangerous and Reckless, with both tracks incurring a soft brush of gentle sentimentality. When a relationship is over, how do you stop loving someone? What if you can’t? Beer can’t accept it - “No it can’t be this easy to let me go.” On Reckless, Beer isn’t angry and bristling, but is cataclysmically confused. If you “swore on every star / How could you be so reckless with my heart?” And isn’t that the eternal question?

Standout tracks: Sweet Relief, I Wonder, Showed Me (How I Fell in Love With You)

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!