There are traces of blood on the disco ball, but this time, the blood is not our own. Songs of protest can be cheesy cornball numbers or play into exhausted victim narratives. Songs of protest can also defy any expectations of what a protest song can mean as is the case in Blood Orange's tribute to Sandra Bland. Songs of protest can slay.
Alex Anwandter- our Prince of Pop- is back. With a vengeance. Alex Anwandter is going after the totality of power (explicitly and flagrantly), calling for the total destruction of our present reality. Alex is not having it with the tyranny of work. He’s over the Church condemning him to hell or the $tate pathologizing his queerness. But in this epoch, it doesn't suffice to merely signal at the sources of our miserable subjugation. Alex wants to set something on fire. The religious and the political establishment seem like obvious targets on this fervent yet elegant (luxuriate in that string section) dance floor: “Si quiero prenderle fuego a algo / que sea la iglesia y el congreso.” The fact that “Siempre Es Viernes En Mi Corazón” is a collaboration with Ale Sergi and Juliana Gattas (of Miranda!) is a bittersweet nostalgia (2004 puberty, coming to terms with queerness, discovering that radio pop could sound 'weird').
The first taste of Amiga (due April 8) is disco house retribution, evocative of a militancy unseen since the 1970s when disco and liberation movements (Black, Brown, queer, trans) coalesced. If "¿Cómo Puedes Vivir Contigo Mismo?" was a tribute to Paris Is Burning (admittedly a whitewashed film that attempted to showcase Black & Brown ball culture in NYC), "Siempre Es Viernes En Mi Corazón" channels the energy that catalyzed the Stonewall Riots. “Siempre Es Viernes En Mi Corazón” is seductive and seditious- a quintessential record for the ongoing #PopInsurrection. It is an ode to our eternal mutiny in the discotheque and in the streets.