There is no current shortage of queer music. In just the past month, Reneé Rapp has released a take-no-prisoners tell-all album, Conan Gray’s Wishbone offered heartbreak and catharsis and Chappell Roan finally dropped her long-awaited single “The Subway.” It’s an embarrassment of riches, starkly different from the very recent past when songs explicitly cataloguing the highs and lows of queer life were much fewer and farther between. But even with so much to choose from, there are two bands releasing new music who you may have missed that are not only shattering expectations as all-female rockstars on the rise, but also as mostly queer storytellers weaving tales of queerness in its many forms: The Aces and the Beaches.
Releasing their albums Gold Star Baby and No Hard Feelings within two weeks of each other (on Aug. 15 and Aug. 29, respectively), the Aces and the Beaches share more similarities than they do differences. Each formed by a sister duo, both bands have been together for well over a decade, and have blazed trails as guitar-forward, all-female bands in a landscape that oftentimes still refuses to take female instrumentalists seriously in comparison to their all-male or just-female-fronted peers. But the makeup of each band is their most notable similarity. The Aces boasts three queer members (Cristal and Alisa Ramirez and Katie Henderson) and one staunch ally (McKenna Petty), while the Beaches touts two queer members (Jordan Miller and Leandra Earl) and two straight ones (Kylie Miller and Eliza Enman-McDaniel). It’s the diversity present within these bands that makes them so compelling, especially in comparison to their contemporaries.
Though Reneé Rapp’s confessional bops and heartaching ballads flow smoothly through a single body of work, she never pushes past the barriers of her own viewpoint. The Aces’ catalogue includes songs both written and produced with involvement from each member of the band, and Gold Star Baby marks their first experience producing, writing and recording most of the songs entirely as a quartet with little outside influence. And because of that, their tracks swing wildly between tales of growing up Mormon in conservative Utah to dealing with crippling anxiety, all elevated by their choice to begin including female muses in their music on their second album, Under My Influence.
Henderson has spoken at length about her hard-fought journey to embracing her sexuality, and in that way, the outsize confidence of Gold Star Baby feels triumphant and moving; the Ramirez sisters, on the other hand, have been out and proud for many years, adding a layer of well-worn flourish to this audacious release. And while Petty, the band’s bassist who is often lovingly referred to as the “token straight” member, is not queer herself, she offers a unique viewpoint as the last of the band to leave their church. It’s the Aces’ varied experiences that make their music so universally appealing and far-reaching. Whether you’re interested in their queer stories, their relatable struggles with mental health or their gut-wrenching struggle of contending with a religious upbringing, the Aces have something for everyone in their music, allowing audiences from all walks of life to find a home within the liner notes of their four studio albums.
Similarly, the Beaches’ evolution into queer music has allowed both their audience and art to grow with them. The band first debuted explicitly queer songs on their second album, 2023’s Blame My Ex. Miller, who has identified as queer “since middle school,” offers a fun and flirty edge to the band’s queer songs, injecting an energetic confidence into every line. Earl, on the other hand, came out during the pandemic, and has talked candidly about the difficult and unique experience of coming out in her late 20s. Their new album, No Hard Feelings, contains the stand-out single “Lesbian of the Year,” an ode to the pain and heartache that comes with feeling like you’ve missed out on a huge chunk of life by not living authentically. Earl’s vulnerability shines through on the track, throwing in a call-out to her younger self to find the community she needs; of course, the music is elevated by Miller’s haunting delivery and the atmospheric, almost ethereal instrumental that is poignantly sombre yet hopeful.
The Beaches and the Aces have been linked for years, ever since the Beaches opened for the Aces’ Under My Influence tour in 2021. The Aces featured on a remix of the Beaches’ “Everything Is Boring” in May 2023, marking their first official collaboration. But it’s the ways they exemplify the artistry of modern-day queer bands that makes them such compelling equals.
By drawing from their wide breadth of experiences, both bands are able to be relatable to a huge swath of audiences without boxing themselves into moulds they may not continue to fit for their entire careers. While artists like Fletcher and JoJo Siwa have struggled to rebrand after “coming out” as dating men, ultimately resulting in an entirely different product being pushed to their relatively homogenous (and queer) audiences, the Aces and the Beaches are afforded the luxury of complete musical variation. Each band has a brand that is expanding rather than contracting, inviting in more types of listeners with each release.
Nothing is being lost when the muse shifts mid-album, with each band now well versed in finding the perfect flow between each members’ stories across an entire body of work. When one song ends, there’s only a short break before the next track hits and I’m caught up in another band member’s story and engaging in an entirely new experience. The Aces and the Beaches feel like the future of queer women in music. Their greatest strength is their ability to bring moving, personal and unique moments into their songs, and reflecting our varied, queer world right back at us.
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