Let’s say you’ve released a debut album that’s solidified your group’s name in the gothic queer music scene of Philadelphia. Beyond that, you’ve released stellar music videos in line with your group’s vibe, and even built a loyal following that has led to cameos, live variety show performances, and iconic looks from drag and fashion superstars. How do you make your deluxe edition stand out after such meteoric success?
Add more meat. But what if there’s even more? Then you add even more meat.
The Noisy as a group describes its “recipe” on their Bandcamp page as including “Spaghetti Westerns, Body Horror, drag, literature, queer community, and home cooking” served through “a sound that merges an Indie Rock drive with the romance and elegance of classic Pop”. Releasing both the original versions of their songs alongside the deluxe versions, The Noisy allows us to experience the band’s ascension in production quality after indulging our nostalgia for their classic sound. For first-time listeners (like myself), the contrast between the original tracks and their improved versions (be they recorded in a session for New York’s WVKR or for the Deluxe edition) tells the same story in itself that curbs the feeling of monotony any artist risks by releasing two versions of the same track in the same album or EP. Poet and vocalist Sara Mae Henke’s lyrics engrave themselves into the mind after the first listen, carried on their longing and wistful voice, yet the boost given to the revised and improved instrumentals further cements the significance of these poems and their titles.
To give an example from the album, “Tony Soprano” stands out as a track that—from my analysis—tackles something occasionally present in the queer experience that I can identify with. Titling the song after the protagonist of the hit TV drama, The Sopranos, a show that deals primarily with Tony’s attempts to improve himself that ultimately fall short at each turn as he is faced with looming (or overt) threats to his life until we’re left wondering what became of him after the show’s famously ambiguous ending, is a genius choice on the part of Henke as their lyrics allude to changes and mortality alike. The life drawing to a close, however, is not the singer’s; instead, judging from the voicemail included at the end of the track, it is their grandmother that they worry about. Something I endured, something I am sure other young queer adults go through, is the feeling that we must hide our true selves from our grandparents out of a fear that they will not understand and love us the same way they did when we were young. Henke touches on this in their lyrics:
Realized this morning
you won’t make the cookie table at my wedding
(…)
If I am changing
I am changing
& if I change
How will you see me then
The voicemail is not present in the deluxe version of the track. In lieu of this, the instrumental seems to adhere more to the quality present in the soundtrack of The Sopranos, with emphasis on strings, mandolin, and plunky percussion. I would note that the exclusion of Grandma’s message asking for the singer’s new address detracts from the overall message of the song, namely the anxieties that come with the guilt-inducing question posed to oneself that asks “would they still love me now?”, and instead brings the character of Tony Soprano more into focus over the singer themselves. Even so, the themes of change and leaving behind a life in which one is comfortable, yet unhappy, apply just as much to those of us who had to leave family behind to live authentically as they do to a traumatized Tony Soprano trying to apply whatever he sees as useful from his therapy sessions.
A track only present on this album (as far as I could tell) is “Nightshade”, a driving acoustic ode to what appears to be a love falling apart with distance that the singer never asked for. Themes of physical distance are sprinkled throughout the song:
I used to
Beg to be
The color of road maps
Of car windows opening
(…)
In the letter you said
There’s certain kinds of restraint:
space, brevity, spareness
(…)
over the rough and tumbling
how you
Ran up ahead
where the dead
tended fields of quiet
We were meadow walking
The trees were reaching out
These references to the familiar aesthetics of travel—letters from afar, road maps to guide, the various roadside sights one sees through the car window when moving from points A to B in the night —do well to support the themes of feeling abandoned and unwanted as one’s partner drifts further and further away. From what is made overt in the song, the physical distance came before the emotional:
You tell me
not to cheat
Your hand
on my knee
Yet, as time wears on, the meetings between the singer and their love that were once intimate and vibrant become mournful affairs. Perhaps our narrator’s love becomes more focused on their ambitions, or perhaps those pleas for the narrator to “not cheat” became prophecies that the begging lover ultimately fulfills; either way, the song ends on a repeating yet incomplete declaration:
If I’m not wanted (x6)
The driving guitar used in this track makes another bold appearance, this time amped up alongside clicking and splashing drums in the single version of “Morricone”, making it more distinct in sound than its original album release. This track grapples with transient love as well, this time the feeling of being suddenly ensnared in a love that sweeps the narrator into a more wild life that perhaps molded their paramour, yet unfortunately, this devotion is not reciprocated by the desperado rake and leaves the singer to grapple with the disorienting despair that comes after the lantern-light burns out.
The Noisy markets itself to fans of Japanese Breakfast, Jay Som, Chappell Roan, and Perfume Genius; I liken the sound of Henke’s vocals and the fuzzy synths of The Noisy’s original tracks to Portishead (particularly the “Dummy” era). The Deluxe edition, produced by Jacob Lawter (of Slow and Steady) and made in collaboration with Josh Sorrells (of Easy Does It), Ash Baker (of Bugs Baker), and Nyleen Perez (of Pueblo Now) reinvigorates the breakout hits of The Noisy from their introspective grunge-pop origins into something more cinematic and proud of the successes the group has celebrated. By occasionally veering away from romance and into the familiar and more self reflective, however, I would consider The Noisy as a standout among other queer artists I have covered by way of Sara Mae Henke’s inventive use of imagery and metaphor alongside Nate Kim and Daniel Sohn’s compositions (along with Sohn’s vocal talent, where applicable) to immerse the listener in a deluge of emotion to the group’s precise design. Nothing more, nothing less.
I look forward to more from this group and encourage our readers to support the album’s release on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and YouTube, as well as follow the group on Instagram for updates on future releases. According to the band’s website, their next show will be on August 28th at The Dolphin in Philadelphia, PA, with the Kulfi Girls. I highly encourage those able to attend to check the group out in person, as I have the funny feeling that they’re all lovely people from their shared authenticity alone.
Written by by Alexei Lee
