anita velveeta's "Liquid Gold" review
Written for EMMIE Magazine at UW-Madison - read it here!
It's violent transgender ideology
Anita Velveeta's Liquid Gold is asking and pleading with you to stop fucking around and get violent. Gone are the slow acoustic songs about love or growth that have previously peppered her albums. They are instead replaced with nine fast and angry tracks. Each song, through an eclectic mix of hardcore, hyperpop and punk, tells the story of the struggle of being trans in today's America. And it fucking rips.
The first track, “Stealing from Target is a Twin Cities Pastime,” takes quick aim at the businesses bleeding money from Minneapolis. The song slows down and speeds up, switching between synthesizers, samples and instrumentals without warning. She switches between mocking and sneering vocals, but through every section the song feels perfectly cohesive. Through this title track, Velveeta introduces the listener to the protagonists and antagonists of the album: the Twin Cities Punks she calls her friends, and the system she calls on the listener to fight against.
This is quickly followed by “Show and Tell,” a song which reveals a second side of the album. It's just as harsh, with maybe more hyperpop influence than the former, but now focuses on Velveeta's struggles with relationships as a famous trans woman. The relationships with former friends, dating apps and chasers — the relationships that are required to stay alive, but can leave you open to abuse.
The standout song on Liquid Gold is “Bloodsports,” the goriest track on the album. To this point, each song followed a story, but now her only bounds are how loud she can yell and how fast she can move. Sonically it's just as eclectic as the rest of the tracks, but the lyrics now turn to us, painting a picture (in blood of course) of how we need to start fighting back.
Throughout this album Anita screams, yells and kicks about navigating the rotten system she has found herself in. Anita's music has always been for the trans community — she has cultivated her shows to allow queer punks to have their first experience in the community, to mosh, sing and be themselves. But as the American system of violence once again sets its eyes on the trans community, this album calls on those in it not to become complacent. It calls on everyone to bring that violence to the oppressors.
8,612/10,000