review by Chimera Mohammadi
TRAИƧA’s first song, “I. Midnight Moon Pool (Womb of the Soul),” is a sonic dream of birth, an ode to the raw creative power that defines the act of gender transition. This first glittering wave pulls us deep into the celestial sea of grief, spirituality, and hope that constitutes TRAИƧA. The album unites a dazzling array of newer Queer talent, cultural titans, and indie darlings, including Sade, André 3000, ANOHNI, Adrianne Lenker, Devendra Banhart, Perfume Genius, Sam Smith, Clairo, and many more, resulting in a stylistically diverse yet cohesive body of work. It’s divided into eight sections, each thematized by its first track. It is at once a tribute to trans musical pioneer SOPHIE, whose passing galvanized the creation of the album, a guide through grief, and an exploration of trans identity and resistance. The music spans ethereal meditations, dirges, disco-infused celebrations, rebel cries, and more, an eclectic blend that manages conversation rather than dissonance. Songs like Niecy Blues’ “It Is Over Now?” dive into open wounds that are subsequently sewn up in tracks such as Laura Jane Grace’s “Surrender Your Gender,” which demands self-actualization without concession. Songs like the cover of Low’s “Point of Disgust” by Alan Sparhawk and Perfume Genius linger in quiet moments of pain which evaporate in the sunshine of tracks like “I Feel Free” by SPARKLE DIVISION and Pepper Mashay. Throughout TRAИƧA, dual rivers of mourning and creativity converge to create a healing current of liberation that listeners can ride all the way from the Womb of the Soul to Reinvention while they dream of safer worlds.
Dig into the album at transa.world.
