Queen of Denmark by John Grant

This album really grabbed me in a way that I wasn’t quite expecting. John Grant certainly has a knack for a catchy lyric and after listening to this three times today I find myself singing along with lines like “I feel just Sigourney Weaver when she had to kill those aliens” and “I wanted to change the world but I could not even change my underwear”

There are lots of deeply personal insights here about John Grant’s experience of growing up as a gay man in the midwest and songs like the title track and “JC Hates Faggots” are devastating in their brutal honesty.

The music is mostly simple piano and synth accompaniments with some arrangements reminding me of Scissor Sisters in places. The only thing that I wasn’t sure about was a hard turn into some discordant Kraftwerk style euro-pop on the last couple of tracks with a cod German accent.

Other than that, this is definitely going into my favourites list.