In the social media whirlwind of DragWorld posts, you may have missed the release of Alaska & Jeremy’s album Amethyst Journey that was released on 17th August 2018. Alaska wrote and recorded with her friend, Jeremy Mikush, who you may have seen at Alaska’s show ‘An Evening with Alaska’. Despite performing together for over 10 years, Amethyst Journey is their official debut as a new musical duo.

The album is very different to the likes of Anus and Poundcake. I don’t know about anyone else but I love listening to ‘The T’ when I need to pump myself up for a night out or particularly scary meeting! This album definitely has a calmer vibe. I’ve been listening to it at my desk at work and in the evenings when I want to chill out. It’s a real reflection of the spiritual journey that Alaska & Jeremy have gone on together.

Before I delve into my favourite tracks on the album I did just want to take a moment to talk about the album cover. On a recent episode of the podcast LGBTQ+A, the host, Jeffrey Masters, questioned whether Alaska considered herself to be in drag on the cover. Her response was that she was still wearing makeup, a dress, and a wig and questioned at what point we say something is or isn’t drag. I thought she made a really interesting point because although she is not in the full Alaska beat we are used to, can we say she’s not doing drag? Please now insert an ‘if you’re not wearing nails you’re not doing drag’ reference here if you so wish.

Moving onto the tracklist. As the album name suggests, these songs do take you on a bit of a spiritual journey. They ask questions about life and delve into mankind’s relationship with nature. You can definitely see how it’s been inspired by Stevie Nicks.‘So Far Gone’ is my favourite song on the album, hands down. The lyrics centre around being far from loved ones & bring to light the loneliness of being on the road. I am also a bit of a sucker for a Westlife key change so that immediately bumped it up my list.

‘Aliens’ tries to get perspective on the world as it is today and questions where humanity is and the meaning of life. So you could say it’s pretty deep. It’s the first song off the album to have a music video which you should definitely check out for an ‘at one with nature’ moment from Alaska.

‘Truth in The Light’ looks at a relationship that has become stagnant and has reached its end, whilst ‘The Wind’ is all about a sense of change that is brewing. ‘Son of A Mother’ is another of my favourites because how can you not like a song that includes the lyrics “Uterus, mama’s pissed”. You can’t. ‘The End of World’ alludes to the destruction we are raging on the earth whereas, ‘Ascension’ describes meditation and reaching ‘beyond this dimension’. The last track is ‘The End of the Day’, which is 1 minute, 38 seconds of beautiful layering and harmonies. This is definitely the one you want to listen to as you drift off to sleep or start your meditation if you’ve been inspired by Alaska and Jeremy.

This album had to be the first to feature on Sophie’s Songs. Not only because it inspired the whole series but because it came as a refreshing change to the drag queen music scene. Not that I won’t still be busting out my grandma dance moves to ‘Read You Wrote You’ but sometimes it’s nice to just chill out too.

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