RuPaul - Glamazon.

Honestly, I didn’t think the new RuPaul album would be this amazing. After playing it non-stop for almost a week, I have to admit that I’m in love. Yes, “Glamazon” is about 100 times better than Ru’s last album “Champion.” While that LP was a lot of fun, once I got over the novelty of the campy humour, there wasn’t much left to bring me back for repeated listenings. The great production and songwriting on “Glamazon” though, demands that it be respected as a transtastic, legitimately wonderful dance album. I like every song on it.

Even on a first listen, all the tracks sound excitingly familiar. The synths, chord progressions, and melodies, are all woven by the same thread that has sewn up some of the greatest gay anthems in the HERstory of dance music. All of the songs were once again written and produced by RuPaul and Lucian Piane, and I have to hand it to them, they definitely kicked things up a notch with this effort. 

The album starts with the appropriately titled “The Beginning.” You can just picture the curtain rising from the stage as you hear an audience loudly cheering for Ru’s arrival. She chants: “this is the beginning, this is the beginning of the record tonight.” You get the immediate impression that you are in for a wonderful ride as the song launches into pounding beats and swirling synths. The lyrics are then changed to “this is the beginning of the rest of your life” and immediately you’re wishing you were on a dance floor grinding up on many people.

Second song “Click Clack, (Make Dat Money)” brings the fierceness up another notch. “Gonna walk right through that door, high heels on a hard wood floor” indeed. Ru goes effortlessly from melodic hooks (“go, go make dat money”) to the hands in the air chant-shouting of “click-clack, click-clack where all mah girls at?” It’s the most R&B/hip-hop song on the album, and it works incredibly well. By the time it’s over, you’re fully untucked for the next eight songs.

My favorite track, and I would argue the masterpiece of “Glamazon” is “Responsitrannity.” This song is an ode about loving yourself, but also has some darker electronics and lyrics in it that give it a great edge. The middle eight of this song is simply spectacular. It starts by winding down to just a banging piano, hand-claps, and drums, then Ru comes in singing “in the middle of the night, in the middle of a dream, I woke up to the radio, and the message was loud, and the message was clear, don’t be a victim to what you don’t know.” Then the disco beat kicks back in as things get wonderfully out of control, it builds and builds, then the melody goes up an octave as it builds some more, then briefly calms down before feverishly launching into the final chorus. Yes, it is quite good.

I recently gave Ru a shout-out on twitter, saying “I basically live for the piano break-down in the middle of @RuPaul’s ‘Responistrannity.’” She actually re-tweeted me, adding “We were having a Jim Steinman moment” LOL! Love her! Totally made my day.

Elsewhere on the record, “Get Your Rebel On” is a full-out, guns-blazing call for equality and social action. “Forever and Ever” reminds me of Aretha Franklin/Diana King’s “I Say A Little Prayer For You” in the most wonderful way. The final track “If I Dream” is an uplifting ode about making your dreams come true. On many of these tracks, the lyrics come dreadfully close to being too cheesy to handle, but the larger than life production makes RuPauls preaching deliciously legitimate. She takes you to church, and all you want to say is “Hallelujah.”

It is the perfect album to listen to when you’re getting ready for a night out, or at the gym, or when you’re driving and want something really good to sing along to, or when you’re in a bad mood and need a good cheer up, or when you’re cleaning your kitchen. It’s especially a great listen when you’re walking down the street, because it will MAKE YOU STRUT.

“Remember girls, if you don’t love yourself, how in da hell you ‘gon love somebody else? Can I get an Amen up in here?”

Amen Ru. AMEN.