Transgender Dysphoria Blues [LP] in Bloomington, MN

To call
Transgender Dysphoria Blues
the album of
Laura Jane Grace
's life may be accurate, but it also suggests that this,
Against Me!
's sixth studio record, is autobiographical, which isn't strictly true. Originally,
Grace
conceived the project as a concept album about a transsexual prostitute, but during the record's earliest stages,
revealed first to her band and then to the world at large (via a 2012 article in Rolling Stone) that she herself was a transgender woman. Once
went public with her transition, the dynamics of the record and the band itself shifted. Already braced to return to independent status after a stint at
Sire
, the group splintered during recording at the band's own Total Treble Studios; by the end of the sessions, the rhythm section had been replaced, leaving only
and guitarist
James Bowman
. It is to their considerable credit that
never sounds like the work of a band falling apart; if anything, they're reinvigorated, playing with a purpose lacking on 2010's softly unfocused
White Crosses
. Indeed, that drive derives from
's decision to transition. By design,
pushes
's story to the forefront. She and
Bowman
cleverly constructed the album to be musically universal and lyrically specific, easing listeners into identifying with a struggle they may otherwise deem foreign. Jettisoning any of the amorphous explorations of
, not to mention the folk-punk of their earliest records ("Two Coffins" comes the closest to folk),
favors nervy, direct rock & roll, the kind that can fill either a club or stadium -- singalongs inspired by
Strummer
and
Springsteen
and any number of their followers, populist punk that underpins songs that tell the tale of an individual experience. Perhaps the details pertain to
's life and perhaps they don't; ultimately it doesn't matter because
powerfully conveys the experience of transgender dysphoria: the knowing that you don't belong in the body in which you were born, the alienation that follows, the acceptance that comes with confession, and yet that move doesn't soothe all the pain. The trick of the album is how the music -- simple, hookier than most
music -- sells the story, underscoring the universal elements of this very specific story. This is the gateway into
, but what resonates is that very individual experience: how
has turned her public acceptance of who she is into punk poetry. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine