What Author Carmen Maria Machado Is Listening to Right Now
The short stories that comprise Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, a 2017 National Book Award finalist, are rife with surreal horror and speculative fiction shot through with sharply feminist appraisals. One of her best, “Especially Heinous,” is made up of several seasons’ worth of faux Law & Order: SVU loglines that tell a disturbing yet darkly funny story about how society creates spectacles out of sexual violence. In the Philadelphia-based writer’s most recent book, her 2019 memoir In the Dream House, she unpacks an abusive queer relationship by looking at it from every possible stylistic angle: as a prologue, as a stoner comedy, as a form of time travel. Leavened by her limitless imagination and razor-edged sense of humor, Machado’s work is thrilling to read because it refuses to adhere to any one form, structure, or genre.
Her appreciation for all forms of storytelling also extends to the karaoke bar, where she often sings Reba McEntire’s cover of “Fancy,” a Bobbie Gentry tune about a woman who escapes poverty by becoming a courtesan. Having grown up with a mother who loves Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, Machado’s affinity for country story-songs and murder ballads is ingrained. “But it also makes sense because I’m a writer—it’s like I need that storytelling,” she tells me over the phone.
Machado’s love of songs with backstories also inspired this indispensable Twitter thread about how duets between women regarding men—from Brandy and Monica to Céline Dion and Barbra Streisand—can be deeply coded and queer. The thread is funny but also sharply perceptive about music, thanks in part to Machado’s hopscotching tastes over the years. “We saw a Godspeed concert when I was 16,” she says, remembering her post-rock phase. “It was by far the coolest thing I ever did as a teenager, because I was a deeply uncool teenager.” In college, she adopted Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco, and “all the gay lady singer-songwriter-type musicians” as her own. Now she mostly listens to pop music (Top 40 and hipper electropop alike), plus her favorite old country songs. “It’s been this weird, uncool, multiple-step journey of finding music that I like,” she says.
Here, Machado shares three songs in her current rotation—all of which happen to be “very sexy choices,” she realizes later with a laugh.
King Princess: “Pussy Is God”
Carmen Maria Machado: King Princess is so exciting to me because I keep thinking to myself, Man, to have listened to music like this in high school would have been incredible. There’s something about this super out queer person writing songs about pussy—what a fucking joy! What a gift in this world that we have her. I saw her on SNL when she did “Hit the Back” and it was just so hot. The song is also sexy in a very direct and obvious way. I thought, Oh my god, this is amazing and it’s so gay and it’s on this fucking huge program!
Carly Rae Jepsen: “Want You in My Room”
I’m a massive Carly Rae Jepsen fan. I’ve had her on rotation for a very, very long time and every new album is even more exciting to me. I just really love her—there’s something about her that’s so sexy and joyful, and this song is very sexy and joyful. It always makes me feel really peppy and ready to go, and I love the video.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: “Stranded in Your Love” [ft. Lee Fields]
I was listening to this song recently and my wife heard it and was like, “What is this song about?” I feel like it’s in the same vein as “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” where it’s kind of like, Oh no, I guess this is happening, I guess I’ll have to stay! I’ve had Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” on rotation too and it’s kind of the opposite of “Stranded in Your Love,” where it’s like, Don’t do the thing! Don’t sleep with the guy you broke up with already! It’s gonna be sad, you’re never gonna get over it! But “Stranded in Your Love” is sexy in its slowness. I find it really joyful. And I love that there’s that [back-and-forth] dialogue in the song too, which reminds me of old-fashioned Motown and country.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
