Sidecar Records & Producer Entertainment Group
Pop, 2015

Goodness, the drag queens of the seventh season of RuPaul’s Drag Race seem to be very musically inclined, aren’t they? I don’t recall so many of them releasing music at around the same time, so soon after the season ends. Miss Fame is easily one of the most glamorous queens to ever grace the runway of the show, but she basically tanked most of the other challenges, so it’s actually quite surprising for her to release an album so soon.

Ah, you may say, releasing an album is all about tinkering with the vocals in the studio, especially one as techno-driven as Beauty Marked. However, Miss Fame acquits herself pretty well here considering her rather limited vocal range. Don’t worry, she sounds on tune most of the time here. If you want an idea of what this album is about, think Sarah Brightman who keeps her weird kooky ideas about love, life, and the universe even after losing most of her vocal range.

Solid Gold is an unexpectedly sweet and poignant ballad – or at least, as much a ballad as it can be in this dance-soaked collection of tunes. Give Me Glamor really sounds glamorous, like a model face-off anthem, while Rubber Doll is a pretty tune to the joys of being in a “prosthetic paradise”. The duets are disappointing, though – the one with Alaska Thunderfuck, Miss Fame, is a bit lacking in energy, and Miss Fame and season winner Violet Chachki are disappointingly sedate in I Run the Runway.

However, the biggest flaws of these tracks are how they all tend to go nowhere after a while. There are no unexpectedly joys or twists to be had after the first two minutes – the songs all seem to loop after a while into repetitive patterns. This is probably good for clubs where people are looking for a good time rather than listening to the music too closely, but not much better for other occasions. That’s not to say that the tracks are bad, though. They are decent, just on the generic and predictable side at times.