Tammie Brown, A Little Bit Of TaMMie - EP review
For the product of a graduate from the RuPaul's Drag Race school of performers, this is as bonkers as you would expect.
Anybody who has either dipped in to the long-running American drag queen reality TV show or watched every episode multiple times will know how crazy it can get. Full of laughs, digs and incredible costumes that outlandish style pours into the music here.
While it isn't brilliant across its four-track duration that probably doesn't matter. It's fun, it's garish and it sticks a few fingers to 'the haters' as it goes.
It kicks off with Lip Sync Suicide - a song carrying the lazy, boozy feel of a late-night speakeasy at the height of prohibition.
The jazz vibe is slick and sexy and allows Tammie, real name Keith Glen Schubert, to wobble her vocals over the top. And we can even slow things down mid-track for a great big thank you to Ru herself for helping her go global.
Next up, Portapotty Prostitute takes the great big electro-pop anthems of the 80s and gives them a little belly tickle to unsettle the apple cart and let loose with Tammie's craziness. The half-spoken vocals jitter over equally off-kilter synths while the rising bass zings along like the soundtrack to an early 90s racing video game.
We go into the realm of sea shantys for The Whale Song. The reggae swagger to the acoustic guitars that hold court throughout much of this sound great and carry Tammie's story from beginning to conclusion. And the chorus with the refrain: "Hits your heart like a narwhal in the dark" is such a fantastic piece of imagery.
It's the EP's best effort by far with its campfire sing-along feel - you can picture the sailors now in port, screaming that line while they sup and spill their grog in the tavern.
Finally we have I Love You, I Love You, I Love You, I Do with its nod to musicals. But it doesn't quite work, coming across a bit like two smashed mates screeching along together as they stumble home from the pub.
It's madness, yes. Colourful, weird and unashamed.
Rating: 5/10
Tammie Brown is hosting the afterparty for the Roast Battles event at O2 Academy in Birmingham tonight. She takes over Nightingale Club on Kent Street from 11.15pm.
