After rising to fame a decade ago with her band Gossip, and following a five-year silence, Beth Ditto is back on the scene with her first solo album, Fake Sugar, out now via Virgin.
Ditto’s charming pop performances find a new awakening in the twelve tracks of the album, on which she sings again about love, relationships (with her wife of four years, in particular), friendship, and human rights. Ditto’s iconic glamour goes side by side with her Southern roots, and without ever turning away from her devotion to human rights and LGBTQ+ rights.
But don’t call her a muse. She told the Guardian,
Because I don’t feel like a muse. I feel I have a feminist duty to girls—and a humanist duty to human beings—to the people who came before that who made it possible for me to be me: my mother, Patti Smith, Alan Vega, Sylvester, George Michael, John Waters. I owe it to everybody to keep the flame lit. I don’t feel like that’s a burden. It’s a joy. It’s a privilege. I feel happy to do it. And I feel lucky. If I didn’t do something with all that, what would be the point?
What a video for “Fire,” off the new album, below!
