Vol. 10 💝 ❤️‍🔥 ❤️‍🩹

"Hey babe, it's okay, I just feel like I'm on fire"

Hi my qts. Did you miss me? I missed you.

What have I been busy with? Truly not sure. I knew I wanted to take a lil break from all major social media (unfortunately Substack is gradually being lumped into that group) and now all of the sudden it’s mid February and I haven’t been sending out silly little lists to you all.

To be frank, I know I haven’t been doing so great because………. I haven’t been listening to music. It’s always my internal fire alarm. I’m not waking up and popping on a record to listen to over coffee 🫠 I’m not obsessively trying to find that one dance song I heard at Montrose beach in 2011 🫠 I’m not looping the same pop song on repeat in different areas of my apartment 🫠 I’m not maxing out my calendar with shows at 7th Street 🫠 All telltale signs that my wellbeing just isn’t quite right. Shay is very good at reminding me things will pass and change and I need to be easy on myself. And in this deep winter of 2025 I (and maybe you) need those reminders a little more often.

And so I’ve put together a smaller list of songs that might help you do that. It’s heavy on love songs. Queers are generally very good at treating friends like lovers and lovers like friends. And I like that about us. So a lot of these songs remind me of how special that is.

Let’s get into some of the tunes on the list-

The “gay girls” are singin their HEARTS out this year. we are so #blessed.

• Sugar in the Tank by TORRES and Julien Baker is my new ‘song-on-repeat’ song. It has made me cry more times this week than maybe necessary but it reminds me of dear friends and dancing at queer two-step and how lucky we are to be alive at the same time. and the video! is just perfect. As one youtube commenter said, “the slow-mo julien hair flip clip was very much needed thank you 😘“ Amen sister

  

• Lucy Dacus’ new album is by far the music I’m looking forward to the most. Her sneak peaks have not disappointed. The video for Best Guest is….hot as hell. If you’re going to click one link from this post, pick this one. Queers in suits will always make me giddy. I’m lookin at you Nellie 😉

• jasmine.4.t is a new artist to me and her new album is now on heavy repeat. It was produced by boygenius (this is a very boygenius heavy list I’m realizing) and the warmth throughout these songs is all I need to make it to Spring. Her video for Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation features a Phoebe Bridgers puppet and makes me want to emo walk through the city. She’s hott. She’s British. Her website is cute. Her music rips. Go buy the record. Go see her on tour with Lucy and Katie (we’re on a first name basis).

• Japanese Breakfast also has an album coming soon! How fortunate are we? Her first single off that album is Orlando in Love- a nod to Virgina Woolf’s novel which just so happens to be on my reading list this year (to be clear it’s been on my list for quite a few years). I’ve been told it’s very queer and very funny and Virgina Wolfe is a sad baddie. JB’s music video for it got me moving it to the top of the list. Join me?

• Miya Folick’s song This Time Around is my recommendation for a song to scream-cry-in-the-car to. "Hey babe, it's okay, I just feel like I'm on fire" indeeeeed. She’s queer and has the voice of an angel. And she’s going on tour soon! (and I have a feeling she’s bout to blow up) So go cry in public with community.

• Signs is 100% Beyonce’s gayest song. Why? How? Because Missy Elliot wrote it and produced it lol. I LUV thinking of them in the studio together- it’s 2003, Missy is wearing a fuzzy fedora, explaining to 22 year old Beyonce how astrology will make or break your love life. If you haven’t heard it or you were born after it was made 😳, better go get your reading from Queen B. I’m a Taurus “freak”. duh.

• Have I written about Blondshell yet? She might be my biggest crush in music rn. I don’t believe she is queer but….she just hasn’t met me yet. KIDDING. I saw her open for Liz Phair and she blew me away. Her voice is the real deal and she also will be touring again soon so find a show. I will probably go on a fangirl rant about her song writing when her new album comes out. Stay tuned! Stay horny!

• Had to close it out with Anywhere by 112 in case you find yourself in lesbian bed death and need a reminder that you can in fact….do it anywhere.

Fun music tangent here: This genre of music- cheesy early 2000’s R&B- will always make happy and I feel very close to it. I was recently in NYC with my friend Lizzie from Minneapolis and her husband Tristan was basically like “why are millennial girls from Minnesota so obsessed with R&B?” hahahaha. But I do have a theory! We grew up during peak Jimmy Jam era. Jimmy Jam was a producer that worked with Prince, Janet Jackson, Mariah, Usher, the list goes on and on. So during that time these artists would come to Minneapolis to record and then do radio promos. Their music permeated the radio here in a different way (and radio was god in the 90s) to a point where it was kind of unavoidable. And incredible. Babyface was front row next to Kevin Garnett’s wife at Timberwolves games. KDWB was bumping Boyz II Men and Next (from mpls). The snowball dances at the roller rink were far too sexually suggestive for us to be participating in. It was a beautiful time to be in the Twin Cities. So Tristan, to answer your question- I blame/thank Jimmy Jam.

Okay writing all of that has lifted my mood (along with Shay’s sourdough, ty bb 💋). I hope you all are hanging in there and loving on each other. We keep us loved. That’s the saying right?

xoxo
Claire