12 Queer and Trans Artists and Albums You Should Listen To

Open your ears for a surprise

This is the Sunday Edition of Paging Dr. Lesbian. If you like this type of thing, subscribe, and share it with your friends. Upgrade your subscription for more, including weekly dispatches from the lesbian internet, monthly playlists, and a free sticker. I’m a full-time freelance journalist – your support goes a long way!

Every single minute I spend writing this newsletter, I’m listening to music. Often an album of my choosing, or a playlist I’ve made, or sometimes a playlist curated by Apple Music (yes, I’m an Apple Music user), or on occasion, KEXP. I don’t often write about music in the newsletter because I find it an intimidating subject to cover, and my reaction to music tends to be more emotional than intellectual. (See: that one line from Emma.) But today, I’m combining my interests and bringing you some of my favorite music from queer and trans artists over the last couple of years – much of which I think deserves more attention. If you like this list and like getting music recs, consider becoming a paid subscriber, which will get you exclusive Paging Dr. Lesbian playlists every month and a weekly song. Happy listening!

PET wife – foam set

It’s time you sink your teeth into PET wife. Made up of queer trans couple Pet and Noelle, the musicial duo make experimental, oftentimes ethereal music that defies genre categorization. In Dirt, Charlie Markbreiter describes them as “T4T Portishead” – an apt comparison. Their album foam set is otherworldly but not un-human, creating novel sounds that nonetheless spark familiar emotions.

The album cover (see above), which features the duo posing next to each other while covered in foam, hints at the enigmatic, out-of-the-box musical stylings within. It also tells of their relationship. Pet and Noelle have been together for six years – they met on HER.com – and seem to have a perfectly symbiotic creative process that indicates a sense of harmony and alignment. Press play for a taste of their laid-back innovation.

jasmine.4.t – You Are the Morning

If you’re a queer indie music head, you’ve likely heard of Saddest Factory Records, the record company founded by boygenius member Phoebe Bridgers. The label’s modest roster includes queer artists like Claud and MUNA, and more recently, a British artist called Jasmine.4.t. The founding member of the project, Jasmine Cruickshank, met Lucy Dacus several years back and eventually decided to submit her music to Bridgers’ label. When Bridgers heard the music, she was immediately sold.

Cruickshank started performing as Jasmine.4.t after transitioning in 2021, going through a very dark period but later finding joy in Manchester’s queer community. Cruickshank’s backing band is comprised entirely of trans women, and her debut album, You Are the Morning, is filled with deeply personal, intimate songs that vary from acoustic to full-throated indie rock. (One of the album’s catchiest songs, “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation,” includes a feature from Bridgers herself.) Cruickshank’s soft, vulnerable voice anchors the project, offering us tender paeans to love, community, and finding yourself. Don’t miss this one.

Arooj Aftab – Night Reign

Arooj Aftab makes music that sounds almost otherworldly, or at least from another time. The Pakistan-born musician combines jazz, classical, traditional Hindustani, and Sufi music – among other influences like Arabic poetry – to create her unique sound. Her 2021 song “Mohabbat,” from her album Vulture Prince, made her the first Pakistani to win a Grammy Award. Her 2024 album Night Reign draws from a similarly wide pool of inspiration, bringing jazz standards, centuries-old poems, and even an Elvis Costello feature into her musical world.

Night Reign spawned the release of Aftab’s first music video, directed by none other than Tessa Thompson. The video for “Raat Ki Rani” is notably queer in its visuals and the sparse narrative it captures, though Aftab remains circumspect about declaring or claiming her identity as part of her art. “The last thing I want to do is make queerness something sellable,” she told Them, noting that “carefree, happy-go-lucky white artists with guitars” aren’t compelled to share their stories of personal growth and hardship in the same way. Indeed, in Aftab’s case, no explanation is necessary – the music speaks for itself.

CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead

An Irish cowgirl, you say? Sounds fake. But it’s very real – just look at Irish musician CMAT. Born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, CMAT released her debut album If My Wife New I'd Be Dead in 2022. Influenced by country music, her songs carry a playful pop sound inflected with her Irish twang. Her songs tell of love and loss, of shitty jobs and shitty relationships, all with CMAT’s signature cheeky sense of humor. The track “Peter Bodgnavich” was inspired by the You Must Remember This series about Polly Platt, and “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!” takes its title from an all-time classic Vine.

CMAT, who is bisexual, told NME, “I’m making music for the girls and the gays, and that’s it,” and is very outspoken on social media. After a BBC video of her performing recieved hateful, fatphobic comments on Instagram, she took to X and wrote “i didnt realise it was ILLEGAL to have a HUGE ASS !!!!” CMAT’s sophomore release, Crazymad, For Me, retains the singer’s yeehaw-inspired music with a renewed sense of maturity and introspection. Later this year, she’ll release her third album, Euro-Country, but you should start with her debut.

Sasami – Blood On The Silver Screen

Queer musician Sasami’s music encomapsses a diverse range of genres, but no matter the sound, it always finds resonance on a visceral level. Her eponymous album swirled around shoegaze, digging into the melancholic underside of distorted guitars and penning mournful melodies. On her second album, Squeeze, Sasami tapped into nu-metal and classical while still leaving room for luscious, beautiful musicality on songs like “Not A Love Song.”

Sasami takes a fittingly cinematic approach on her most recent album, Blood On The Silver Screen, delivering her most pop-friendly tracks yet. Songs like “Slugger” and “Honeycrash” are catchy enough to become indie anthems but still retain her penchant for writing ear-catching melodies beneath hard-hitting rock instrumentation. Blood On The Silver Screen is a great place to start for new listeners, as it’s accessible with a subtle early 2000s throwback sound, but never derivative.

Weakened Friends – Quitter

Everyone loves to see lesbian wives winning, which is why you should check out Weakened Friends, a band comprised of married couple Sonia Sturino and Annie Hoffman, alongside Adam Hand on drums. The band, which is from Portland, Maine, makes catchy, biting indie rock music that packs a punch. With searing guitar sounds and sardonic vocals, the trio finds a balance between resentful frustration and playful self-acceptance. Start with “Quitter” from their album of the same name.

Julien Baker and TORRES – Send A Prayer My Way

Though she’s released three albums of her own, musician Julien Baker is probably best known for being a member of the supergroup boygenius, and for dating bandmate Lucy Dacus. This year, Baker teamed up with TORRES for a joint album, which was just released this Friday. Both artists grew up queer in the South, a theme that comes up on some of the songs, such as the TORRES-sung “Tuesday.” Both Baker and TORRES’ music tends toward the dark and moody, with Baker often preferring sparse instrumentation and TORRES implementing grungier guitar noises.

On their collaborative album Send A Prayer My Way, there’s more levity to be found, particularly on their first single “Sugar In The Tank,” though there’s plenty of lonesome crooning as well. Just as the result of boygenius was more than the sum of its parts, this collaboration generates a new sound that will nonetheless be familiar to fans of both artists. If you like indie rock and contemplative songs about memory and relationships, give the album a listen.

Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven

I would say don’t be turned off by this next band’s name, but actually, if you are turned off by it, you probably won’t like them. The wonderfully-named Mannequin Pussy is a queer punk band from Philadelphia. Though they’ve been putting out records since 2010, they’ve gained more popularity since the release of their 2019 album Patience and their 2024 album I Got Heaven. While their music contains plenty of rage, there are moments of tenderness as well, such as in the title track of their most recent album, which explores how Christiany can be used to control queer people.

Lead singer Marisa Dabice told Them that their music is “inherently political” because they’re a band made up of queer folks and people of color. Alongside justified anger about the state of the world, I Got Heaven also features songs of empowerment, self-love, and desire, a heady combination for the impassioned group. As bassist Colins "Bear" Regisford put it, “The person you should be most horny for is yourself.”

Hurray for the Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive

If you know anything about Hurray for the Riff Raff, the musical project created by Alynda Segarra, you probably know Segarra’s now-famous backstory. Born and raised in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Segarra ran away and train-hopped to New Orleans when they were 17. On their most recent album, The Past Is Still Alive, Segarra covers new ground, speaking about drug addiction, falling in and out of love, finding community, and remembrance.

Segarra also uses the album as a space to explore their non-binary identity, playing with gender in the lyrics and putting a queer spin on American folk music. With simple, open chords and a quietly propulsive tempo, the record rewrites the classic story of cowboys and cowgirls from the vantage point of queer outlaws.

Brittany Howard – What Now

If you were listening to the radio around 2012, you’ve probably heard “Hold On,” the smash hit from the band Alabama Shakes. The group only released one more album following their debut, after which the members went their separate ways. Most notably, lead singer Brittany Howard began releasing music as a solo artist. Her second album, 2024’s What Now, is an excellent representation of Howard’s talent and expansive vision.

What Now spans genres, tempos, and themes, illustrating the breadth of Howard’s musical knowledge and creativity. The record pulls from jazz, blues, soul, funk, psychedelic, and even house music. No matter the style she draws from, Howard always imbues her music with a killer groove, owing to both her soulful, operatic voice and extra funky guitar playing. While her debut record, Jaime, was quietly personal, What Now is an album without boundaries.

Soccer Mommy – Evergreen

Long adored by brooding bisexuals everywhere, Soccer Mommy is an indie darling with a consistently solid output over the last several years. Her debut album, Clean, beloved by critics (and named after a Taylor Swift song), features her most popular track to date, “Your Dog,” and introduced the world to her melancholic, lo-fi, post-grunge universe. Her fourth album, Evergreen, sees the artist – whose given name is Sophie Allison – tackling more mature themes and moving away from her bedroom sound.

These songs feel lived in, and despite the laid-back tone of some tracks (which even sound shoegaze-y at times), the electric guitar-driven songs like “Driver” and “Salt In Wound” give the album a welcome energy. Soccer Mommy still has the blues, but this time around, the blues have more color.

Pale Waves – Smitten

What if you’re favorite mid-2000s pop punk band was fronted by a lesbian from Manchester? Such is the premise of Pale Waves, a British band that takes inspiration from the rock music of earlier decades. Their debut album, 2018’s My Mind Makes Noises, drew from 80s new wave bands and featured their undeniably catchy single “There’s a Honey.” Their next two albums veered more towards pop-punk – think Paramore, Evanescence, and Avril Lavigne. Now, with their fourth album, Smitten, they’ve returned to their 80s roots. Indeed, the opening track on the album, “Glasgow,” begins with a guitar riff that sounds almost exactly like a Cure song.

Which set of albums you gravitate towards will depend on your preference – I know there are some lesbian pop-punk fans out there who would really dig their 2021-2022 output. Indeed, emo queers are likely to get a kick out of the band, including lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie and her goth-for-goth girlfriend. Though their music i sometimes derivative in a pretty literal sense, their throwback sound can be gratifying as well.

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