Bringing back Musical Transients for Pride Month:
Last year, a mashup artist named DJ Psynwav released an album called Musical Transients. It was a follow-up to a prior album, Musical Tangents, and it has the standard meme picks - Shrek music, Live and Learn, a very quality Muppet introduction to the project. But the purpose of the album is that it was an attempt to tell a single, cohesive narrative over the course of a handful of mashup tracks.
We're talking Accidentally in Love, the Rainbow Connection, the Black Parade and I'm A Believer from both Smash Mouth and the Shrek soundtrack, all in one song. We're talking Pink Pony Club, Numb and Pompeii combined into a single, emotionally cathartic crescendo. And it might be easy to write this all off as a meme, but I'm telling you - while you should absolutely go into this with an intent to have a good time, the core theme of this album is 100% serious and it strikes to the heart of an issue that couldn't have been communicated better.
I was very coy about spoiling the surprise when this album was still new, but we're a year out and the audience has found this album. So I'm going to dive into the heart of things.
Musical Transients is DJ Psynwav coming out as transgender.
I've wanted to do a series of posts on this album, dissecting the lyrical choices and putting together the narrative that I see in it, but I feel like it would be too obvious and masturbatory in a way where I'd be coming off like Max Landis "dissecting" Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen. It's not really my story to tell - it's all there in the music for people to find for themselves.
My favorite track is Facts and Longing, which is a combination of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, Handlebars by Flobot, Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz and Hotel California by The Eagles. It's an incredible depiction of suicidal wasting away by way of substance abuse that I relate to a whole lot. It really has to be heard to believe. And look, that final song? IMMEDIATE banger. It dawns the message of the album in a very overwhelming way, where the theme of the album cuts through hectic noise and just reiterates and reiterates until the listener understands the core theme of the album.
For me, this is THE pride album. I've linked Acai's video, where he plays along to it on Clone Hero, because it's how I found the album and I really appreciate the warm, funny community reaction to the album as it goes on.
You have to understand: I don't go recommending meme mashups or mashup content in general. Psynwav's depiction of her journey from nascent, uncertain egg through the turbulent stages of grief where she represses her gender identity (the emergence of such leading to the end of the relationship she was in), to her confident rebirth as who she is by the end of the album - down to and including the depiction of having to find the right name for herself once she's committed to the path - is masterfully done. There is so much emotional catharsis to be found through this album, and this pride month I highly recommend setting forty minutes aside and giving this album a listen. Personally, I love the Acai video - but the plain, barefaced album is there for you to try raw, and I feel like you should give it an honest shot either way.
