Album Review: Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues

The press release for Transgender Dysphoria Blues calls it “insightful and highly-provocative… grappling with gender dysphoria, the loss of a young friend and pure self-discovery”. While such a heavy imputation might suggest a certain level of vulnerability, Against Me! attack with a confident stomp and swagger from the opening, title track. And it really is impossible to resist.

With Drinking With The Jocks, Against Me! get louder and messier than the rest of the album, and they're more interesting for it. While a title like Osama Bin Laden As The Crucified Christ sounds like it would be more at home scribbled in the back of a 15-year-old's school notebook, the song is thankfully as good as its title is terrible. Things change gear in Dear Friend and it's kind of refreshing to hear punk-rock be so unashamedly sentimental and sincere, without all the fist-shaking at the current, hot button cause du jour.

As far as concept albums go, Transgender Dysphoria Blues isn't interested in subtly disguising its message in metaphors and symbolism. It's a story and an issue very important to frontwoman Laura Jane Grace (formerly Tom Gabel) for obvious reasons. Against Me! never let the weight of this subject overwhelm the musicality. Transgender Dysphoria Blues rides the thin line between deep emotion and infectious punk-rock hooks. And it's this precarious balance that makes it legitimately exciting in a way that studio gloss too often polishes away.