Poll time Thought on ‘Transgender Dysphoria Blues’

"The record is as honest as it gets and is as empowering as it is emotional. This will be the record that Against Me! will be remembered by, and rightfully so. After the shaky reception to White Crosses, Against Me! needed a record this good to stay relevant in the ever-changing landscape of punk rock and without a doubt, Transgender Dysphoria Blues will cement their status as legends in the scene. I believe that Transgender Dysphoria Blues is the definitive Against Me! record and without question sets the bar high for punk music in 2014."http://www.underthegunreview.net/2014/01/21/review-against-me-transgender-dysphoria-blues/

What's your Thought on the End part of this review?

REVIEW: Against Me! – ‘Transgender Dysphoria

Artist: Against Me!
Album: Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Genre: Punk

By all accounts, 2013 was a rough year for Against Me! . Aside from the occasional acoustic performance of new material here and there, the future of the band seemed uncertain at best. Longtime bassist Andrew Seward bowed out of the band after the announcement of drummer Jay Weinberg’s departure, the band was forced to drop off a national tour with Bad Religion, and while it seemed like we knew just about everything about the band’s new album, it never materialized. Also, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past eighteen months or so, Against Me! went through a huge change in 2012 when the artist formerly known as Tom Gabel announced her transition into Laura Jane Grace.

The result of this struggle is Transgender Dysphoria Blues, the band’s long awaited sixth album and their first since Laura’s transition. To clear the air, the album exceeds expectations in just about every regard. Transgender Dysphoria Blues resides in the upper echelon, if not the top, of the band’s discography. As Laura screams “You want them to notice the ragged ends of your summer dress/you want them to see you like they see every other girl/they just see a faggot/they hold their breath not to catch the sick,” in the title track and opener, it becomes evident that the record is unsettling in the best way possible; Laura addresses her personal struggle with her transition head-on, leaving very little to the imagination and creating an aura of ”right on” empowerment. The record nearly plays out as a narrative on Laura’s struggle with gender dysphoria.

Don’t be misled; Transgender Dysphoria Blues is an Against Me! album through and through. One look at track titles like “Osama Bin Laden As The Crucified Christ” and “FUCKMYLIFE666″ will confirm that, and hopefully bring in the crowd that were swayed by the confusingly glossy (yet criminally underrated) White Crosses. While Laura’s personal struggle does dominate the lyrical content of the record, classic political jabs in “Osama…” and remarks on the corrupted music industry in “Black Me Out” prove that this isn’t a reimagined or reborn version of Against Me!. While it’s not as raw as the band’s earliest work, the record falls somewhere around As The Eternal Cowboy on the “How Punk Is It?” scale and is written in the undeniable Against Me! style.

My only complaint about the album is the length. While a 29 minute runtime isn’t necessarily detrimental in its own right, there is very little to be discovered here. Hardcore fans have already heard an acoustic version of “True Trans Soul Rebel” from this summer’s True Trans EP, as well as album versions of “FUCKMYLIFE666″ and “Black Me Out” as pre-release singles. Most of the album has been played live in the past two years as well. However, these are the definitive versions of these tracks and the album must be taken in as a whole. Given the painfully long wait for some kind of new music, I just wish there was more. Really, it’s that good.

The record is as honest as it gets and is as empowering as it is emotional. This will be the record that Against Me! will be remembered by, and rightfully so. After the shaky reception to White Crosses, Against Me! needed a record this good to stay relevant in the ever-changing landscape of punk rock and without a doubt, Transgender Dysphoria Blues will cement their status as legends in the scene. I believe that Transgender Dysphoria Blues is the definitive Against Me! record and without question sets the bar high for punk music in 2014.

SCORE: 9.8/10
Review written by: John Bazley — (Follow him on Twitter )
http://www.underthegunreview.net/2014/01/21/review-against-me-transgender-dysphoria-blues/

I wouldn't call it the definitive Against Me! record and I would be quite disappointed if this is the best 2014 has to offer music wise, but I do agree that this is a better one than White Crosses.

According to my iPod play-count, I've listened to songs on this album 65 to 84 times.
I know it's still very new, and I'm on a "T.D.B. high", but right now I believe this is their best record.

I'm not a new fan at all (been listening to them for about 12 years), but I think their two most recent albums are their best.

Full-lengths only, this is my ranking:
1- Transgender Dysphoria Blues
2- White Crosses
3- Searching For A Former Clarity
4- As The Eternal Cowboy / New Wave (tie)
6- Reinventing Axl Rose

And I still LOVE Reinventing Axl Rose.

i'd go:

SFAFC
eternal cowboy
TDB
new wave
white crosses
reinventing axl rose

overall, i just think it's more consistent than the last 2 and i'm so happy there's no butch vig sheen on everything. it's lean and aggressive and passionate.

Searching For A Former Clarity is, to me, still their absolute best. Front to back, that record just has so much depth and texture.


It's very admirable how direct and up front Transgender Dysphoria Blues is about the topics it deals with, but there is something about the more cryptic writing and variety on SFAFC that just amazes me as a listener.

yea, i generally prefer subtlety and ambiguous lyrics.  but SFAFC also has that theme running through it to tie all the songs together, despite how different a lot of them sound.  i also really enjoy bands that antagonize their fans, and that record has a whole bunch of that.  plus some really open questioning of their own past.

Kyle wrote:

Searching For A Former Clarity is, to me, still their absolute best. Front to back, that record just has so much depth and texture.


It's very admirable how direct and up front Transgender Dysphoria Blues is about the topics it deals with, but there is something about the more cryptic writing and variety on SFAFC that just amazes me as a listener.

SFAFC is their best album. Reinventing Axl Rose is my favorite album.

It shocks me that people with the ability to hear prefer the utter nonsense garbage trainwreck that was White Crosses to the punk perfection that was Reinventing Axl Rose. RAR might be the best Punk album of the 21st century.

I only like about half of the songs on RAR. The drums sound like garbage and it's distracting. The good songs are great, but I can hear better versions on bootlegs and the live LP. I think they were still finding a sound that was distinctly theirs, and the lyrics are way more interesting and ambiguous and imaginative on all of the other records.

doctoracula wrote:

I only like about half of the songs on RAR. The drums sound like garbage and it's distracting. The good songs are great, but I can hear better versions on bootlegs and the live LP. I think they were still finding a sound that was distinctly theirs, and the lyrics are way more interesting and ambiguous and imaginative on all of the other records.

Every song on RAR is an anthem to me. Every song on WC sounds like it's off an Angels and Airwaves album. Black Crosses was infinitely better than White Crosses.

In terms of sound, I think SFAFC was "their sound" and RAR/ATEC was them finding it. Everything after just seems like Laura got bored with the confines of traditional punk music and had to experiment. And, to me, everything after SFAFC is lacking what made AM! great in the first place.

Their newest albums are still very good (especially when compared to the crapfest that is mainstream rock) but I know I would like them much better if they didn't already have three amazing albums (and a couple fantastic EPs) already in the bag.

White Crosses is uneven for sure, but I really love Teenage Anarchist and High Pressure Low. Those are top 10 AM! songs to me. Black Crosses is better overall but there are a few songs on WC proper I can't deny

cooljayhu wrote:

Every song on RAR is an anthem to me. Every song on WC sounds like it's off an Angels and Airwaves album. Black Crosses was infinitely better than White Crosses.

In terms of sound, I think SFAFC was "their sound" and RAR/ATEC was them finding it. Everything after just seems like Laura got bored with the confines of traditional punk music and had to experiment. And, to me, everything after SFAFC is lacking what made AM! great in the first place.

Their newest albums are still very good (especially when compared to the crapfest that is mainstream rock) but I know I would like them much better if they didn't already have three amazing albums (and a couple fantastic EPs) already in the bag.

I agree with all of this, though I prefer ATEC over Searching. The first three albums top the list for me.

The part I bolded in your statement is what I have been saying about post-Searching AM since New Wave was released. I'd like the new albums MUCH more than I currently do if it was under a different name. It's more mental than anything, but the drastic change in overall sound changed the dynamic and they strayed pretty far from what I originally loved about the band.

doctoracula wrote:

The drums sound like garbage and it's distracting.

Bingo!

The recording of that album all-around is shitty, but the drums are the biggest problem.
I would LOVE to hear that album completely re-recorded, but at the very least, remove the snare drum and replace it with something that doesn't sound like crap.

I love all the songs on RAR, but, fuck... the recording is atrocious.

RAR will always be fraught with meaning and pathos for me... very near and dear to my heart, I think I could sing every word without having listened to it in years. I lived inside that fucking record.
ATEC is the first thing that came out after I had gotten into them and the record I saw them in support of like 6-8 times. They tried to created a distinctly different record from "Axl" and succeeded. In retrospect though it definitely shows that Laura was 22 when they wrote/made this. Still hate the way this record sounds.
SFAFC is too "look at all this different stuff we can do, and how different it is from the stuff we've done before!" - huge swaths of this album do not hold up at all to me and are v embarrassing (Unprotected Sex in particular). The melodic moments don't land for me because of how rough Laura's vox are. I would not listen to anything on here for more than academic curiosity.

and that's my opinion today on the first 3 Against Me LPs.

telegraphrocks wrote:

doctoracula wrote:

The drums sound like garbage and it's distracting.

Bingo!

The recording of that album all-around is shitty, but the drums are the biggest problem.  
I would LOVE to hear that album completely re-recorded, but at the very least, remove the snare drum and replace it with something that doesn't sound like crap.

I love all the songs on RAR, but, fuck... the recording is atrocious.

I think the recording and production of RAR, while admittedly amateur at best, beats the ever-loving shit out Butch Vig's operatic nonsense on White Crosses. The vocals sound like something T-Pain might approve.

RAR is charmingly under-produced and raw. WC is overproduced and underwhelming. Except for Because of the Shame, damn I love that song.

I don't think there's such a thing as over or under produced. I just know what I think sounds good. And I think RAR sounds super shitty

doctoracula wrote:

I don't think there's such a thing as over or under produced. I just know what I think sounds good. And I think RAR sounds super shitty

There is absolutely over-production and White Crosses is a perfect example because we can compare it with the same songs without all the Butch Vig hjinks with Black Crosses.

White Crosses is the only Against Me! official release that I don't think is well made for what they had to work with.

There are really only a couple songs that are comparable from WC to BC. A good amount of the songs from BC were cut completely, so there's no frame of reference. A bunch of others are just acoustic on BC, we don't know what the demos sounded like, if they even exist. I think the changes to the structure of the title track were definitely for the better. I think the structural changes to Spanish Moss practically ruined the song. Ultimately, the band wanted it to sound like that. I don't like terms like "overproduced" because it assumes a base-level acceptable amount of production, and it's all subjective anyway

Really, I just wish they did every record with J Robbins

Or Bill Stevenson...

that would probably be amazing

I would love to hear them record at least one song with Bill.

So after listening to this a few times, I have come to the conclusion that I am not into this new era of the band. I had a free ticket & ride to their Orlando show the other day, and couldn't find the motivation enough to put pants on and climb in a car.

I think 99% are too afraid to agree with me here. Because it's not nice to slam a boy that just recently came out publicly as a lady. I don't really hate it because of that (no matter how you put it, it always comes back to that). And that's the shitty thing about it. I don't hate it because it's different from the norm. I hate it because it's a shitty record. The production is terrible. The drumming sounds awful. The song writing is weak.

If a critic gives this album a bad review, people will try to set them on fire, call them the anti-christ as well as any and all forms of trans-phobic. I admit, it's not my thing either. But if my friend came out, I would indeed support them.

Unconditional Love sounds like the bad era of Green Day during American Idiot. Repeating the same lyrics roughly 2 bazillion times.

Osama sounds like a weird new Offspring B-Side.
Etc.

On the bright side, there ARE songs I like from it, but those are all about 2 years old and nothing new for the majority of us. I'm always a fan of live recordings better, and I think that is my major bugaboo here. Loved the OG Black Me Out, not so much the studio version. And so on.

I still love their old old records, so I'll stick with those.

Now I can't wait for Transgender_Amber to write 14 paragraphs about me being a hater, which I doubt I'll read