Released back in February to much critical acclaim, the debut self-titled album from Scouser proto-punks Queen Zee passed us by at RPM simply because…well, no one sent us a copy! With renewed interest following a stellar performance at Rebellion and an upcoming tour with Skunk Anansie, we dug in, and we dug in deep.

So, we may be late to the party, but the late-comers get to smoke weed with the punks in the kitchen, while the straight kids try to get off with the beauty queens on the sofa…or maybe that’s just my teenage flashbacks! Anyway I digress, this album is a soundtrack for the outsiders, the outcasts and the kids who just wanna raise a middle finger to the ones who try to bring them down.

“I’m alone, I’m alone, I’m a loner” snarls singer Zee on album opener ‘Loner’. Delivered straight from the crotch, part Iggy and part Ziggy, it’s an anthemic, glam-slam slice of noise. This is as trashy and as cool as it gets kids. Sometimes a song just hits you from the first bar and ‘Loner’ is one of those songs. My interest is piqued and it doesn’t diminish for the next thirty minutes or so.

Maybe we have a band who can triumph where others have failed and truly ignite the touch paper and start a rock ‘n’ roll revolution for Generation Z (or should that be Generation Zee?)

Apparently, Zee is flying the flag for trans artists. Now, I couldn’t care less if their singer is a boy, a girl or a freakin unicorn! What I do care is that Zee rocks, and lo and behold Zee does rock!

‘Lucy Fur’ is a high energy blast of noise with enough glitter and stack heeled strut to entice a theatre full of Rocky Horror enthusiasts and enough raw guitar power to draw in the hardest of punks. ‘Sissy Fists’ is a darker, heavier beast altogether. Riding on a brooding bassline and urgent beats, it drips cool from every pore as Zee screams into the mic. This is a fight song pure and simple. Talking of fight songs ‘Idle Crown’ comes on like ‘Mechanical Animals’ era Marilyn Manson, and that is a sound for sore ears if ever there was one.

A small, Liverpool-based band who are just finding their feet, but sound like they are ready to take on the world, Queen Zee have an element of danger to their sound, like Manson did, like Iggy did like The Lee Harvey Oswald Band did. I get the feeling this band is living it. Yeah, I do believe Queen Zee are 4 real!

“You fuck like a porno movie” Zee drawls in the best Bowie/Manson hybrid I’ve heard in years. The song is called ‘Porno’, don’t play it in front of your mum! Their high energy pump and grind sound is perfect space-age punk rock, the likes of ‘Victim Age’ and ‘Boy’ are fiery, angst-ridden bursts of energy.

The tongue-in-cheek lyricism of closer ‘I Hate Your New Boyfriend’ is cool before it veers off on a sort of extended reprise as Zee rants over the noisy, repetitive riff the band jam out.

Defiantly political and openly queer, Queen Zee are a band who blend sleazy, punk rock sounds with socially aware lyricism, tackling homophobia and transphobia amongst other issues. They dare to raise a fist and yell and tell everyone who will listen that being different is ok. At times they are sleazy and throwaway, at other times they are deadly serious and they sound fresh as fuck in this fucked up world we live in.

Facebook

Buy Queen Zee Here

Author: Ben Hughes