LOVE IS A HUNTER
Rae Spoon
[Saved By Radio/Vinyl], www.raespoon.com
Abandoning the spare country folk of 2008’s superioryouareinferior, Rae Spoon’s latest album, Love is a Hunter, pulses with barely contained dance beats. Backing their signature high tremolo with electronica makes for an odd, but enthralling combination of vulnerability and bravado. Singing “You can dance with the one you came with, or you can come home with me,” Spoon manages to bring romance and emotional honesty to what would have been a shallow club track in the hands of anyone else. Most importantly, Love is a Hunter is a stellar collection of queer anthems, ranging from the solidarity and strength of “Joan,” a “love song to the trans community,” to the power of “Dangerdangerdanger”’s final verse: “Glitter in our eyes/from Berlin to Calgary/Hold each other up/Queer’s surviving.”
Originally published in Shameless Magazine, Spring 2011.