Christian music without judgement, hypocrisy, fire or brimstone – CHURCH, the eagerly awaited sophomore album from North Carolinian drag queen, Flamy Grant sets out values for a better world. 

Release Date:  11^th October 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

to recap…

We’ve been hearing a lot from Flamy Grant, the self-described “Shame-slaying, hip-swaying, singing-songwriting drag queen from Asheville, North Carolina” over recent months and all that noise, all that fanfare has been preparing us for one specific event: the release of Flamy’s second album, the eagerly awaited CHURCH.  Well, I’m so pleased to be able to say that, at long last, the wait is over.  CHURCH is here and it’s an album that will blow off your socks or, for that matter, any other kind of soft legwear that you might happen to be wearing.

Regular perusers of these pages will be aware that Flamy Grant is an award-winning, Billboard-charting musical artist who specializes in challenging the comfortable, complacent norms of the Christian church, especially when those norms involve the de-legitimisation of gay sexuality.  She speaks for a whole population of disenfranchised Christians and her 2022 debut album, Bible Belt Baby made her the first drag performer to top the iTunes Christian Chart; and people who see an opportunity to win cheap publicity by dissing Flamy, her music and her persona – as a so-called MAGA preacher misguidedly did a couple of years ago – are liable to find their words being flung back in their faces, by deed, gesture and example.

appetite whetted

We’ve already had a few tastes of what to expect from CHURCH; the funky S.P.R.K.L., the angry, bluesy Last Days and, most recently, the biting country-gospel ballad, If You Ever Leave have all seen light of day as singles and we loved each and every one of them.  It’s certainly fair to say that the singles set some very exacting expectations as far as CHURCH is concerned and now I’m happy to able to confirm – those expectations have been met.  Nay – they’ve been exceeded.

the messages are simple

We kick off on a bright note with the twangy guitar and crisp drumbeat that introduce opening track Do It for the Song.  Flamy serves up a deep, sleazy vocal and the chorus is big and joyous.  The message is simple – we don’t indulge in music for the love, the cash, the fame or the radio play (although Flamy does admit that a little of the latter is always welcome) – we do it for the song.  And the song is simple, too; live it, sing it and enjoy it.

The drumbeat is just as solid as it sets the pace for Revenge, a straightforward rocker with lyrics that recall Flamy’s experiences as she tried to fit in at school and at church and realized that many of her contemporaries viewed her as ‘different.’  The lyrics, with lines like: “I want a shot at the light where being queer don’t feel like a nightmare” and “It was never about me – I hope you get the help YOU need,” are certainly hard-hitting, but they’re also fair – and fun.

country flavour

The passion is wound back a touch for the gentle, country-flavoured How To Find the Words.  The pedal steel is simply glorious and the assertiveness and confidence in Flamy’s vocal is replaced by vulnerability, a quality that is retained for the sad, sincere, Start Again (MJ’s Song), another reflective number in which Flamy recalls the anguish she suffered from having to conceal her real self from the world.

I’ve already expressed my thorough admiration for S.P.R.K.L., the album’s lead single.  Back in June, I described the song as “…sharp and frighteningly funky” and the really good news is that it sounds even better with repeated listenings; indeed, this is certainly one of the tracks of ’24.  And the advice that Flamy delivers in her lyrics: “Let a queen give you a lesson: Stay proud, radiate, keep laughing” is surely worth following in any context.  And Single #1 is immediately followed by Single #2.  Flamy uses Last Days to set out her response to those (including that MAGA preacher) who reacted to her success with vitriol.  Flamy is joined on the track by Chris Housman, another performer noted for rejoicing in his gay sexuality, and it’s another tremendous song.

on last days…

And, at this juncture, it’s worth repeating Flamy’s description of the feelings that motivated her to write Last Days in the first place:

“It these truly are the last days, let them be the last days of bigotry, shame and gatekeeping.  I hope that Last Days will serve as a celebratory rally cry for Christians who are tired of their faith being used to tyrannise and politically persecute the LGBTQ+ community, women, BIPOC folks and everyone else currently suffering at the hands of evangelicals.”

It starts humbly enough – just voice and acoustic guitar, with pedal steel slotted into the places where it fits – but Leslie soon grows into a glorious country ballad, and Flamy’s vocal is probably her best on the album, before Flamy brings up more recollections of her early years in the astounding Hard to See Me Happy.  She shares harrowing memories of being told: “God didn’t make you this way” and of realizing that her fellow churchgoers were: “…always fine as long as I was suffering,” before going on to open up her heart and declare that, regardless of the prejudices of others, she BELONGS.  It’s a giant of a song that articulates agonies that many, many others have suffered.

bright, happy & optimistic!

Featuring vocalist, lyricist and self-defined “Poster child of intersectionality,” Crys Matthews, the bright, happy, optimistic Old Religion is a song that articulates the good that religion could do, if it ceased to be co-opted by those seeking to use it for financial or political gain.  The lyrics advocate mercy before judgement and humility before gain and I particularly love the bit when Crys exclaims: “A holy war?  There’s no such thing!”

It’s left to the third and final single, If You Ever Leave, to bring CHURCH to its close and, if you ask me, that’s a bit of genius sequencing, right there.  Dressed as a heartfelt country ballad, it’s a final swipe at the toxicity that Flamy has suffered as a gay person with Christian beliefs.  Flamy’s lyrics here are as biting as at any other point on the album, especially when she concludes: “There’s no such thing as a true religion, babe.  A god who makes you cling to hatred for yourself is not a god who saves.  It’s just mirrors and smoke.”  It sums up the album.

a triumph!

CHURCH is a triumph, a huge achievement that makes points that have needed to be made for a long, long, time.  You don’t need to be gay, or Christian, to enjoy CHURCH, but I guess that you need to appreciate tolerance.  Flamy’s lyrics – calling out the hypocrisy and bigotry in society, as well as in organized religion – will resonate with many; it’s just a shame that few of those at whom these songs are directed will have the patience to listen to them.

Listen to If You Ever Leave – the album’s most recent single – here:

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