The Singles Jukebox

And we like her!

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[7.14]

Hannah Jocelyn: “I Am Her”, the first mainstream song (to my knowledge) by a black transgender woman — at least the first one co-signed by someone like Justin Tranter — didn’t need to be this good. A song like this even existing is a statement of its own, as the titular line (“there’s an outcast in everybody’s life and I am her”) and her bio (“Just a sister trying to make it in a world that says she shouldn’t exist”) acknowledges. It could have just been a saccharine but effective ballad, not unlike like Tranter’s “Hands” from earlier this year. Instead, we get something fierce and intense, from someone whose biography suggests she’s earned every word several times over. This is an incredible song, with the lyrics sung like every word counts; it goddamn well does. Honestly, the way this year has gone, I know it sounds optimistic, but I hope “I Am Her,” if successful, continues the process of culture-wide transgender acceptance; trans people have been especially placed under a microscope in 2016, between HB2 and the ongoing discussion about removing the T in the LGBT acronym altogether, and it would be incredible to see that change. Hell, maybe this even is on the path to a transgender version of people like Troye Sivan, who combine queer topics with a pop instinct. This isn’t a mere stepping stone so much as an exhilarating, fearless leap — whether anyone listens or not.
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Juana Giaimo: Shea Diamond’s voice is strong: it has the experience of one who has endured hard times and is still here, alive. And how well it is joined by that electric guitar! There is no way “I Am Her” passes unnoticed. She is ready to be heard by the whole world — which doesn’t mean she is looking for your approval.
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William John: A powerful statement of positioning and self-definition from an intriguing voice is hampered, unfortunately, by a drudgey, lumbering arrangement.
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Katherine St Asaph: A welcome voice and a guitar with bite, weighed down by the production slouching toward Alex da Kid.
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Claire Biddles: The performance is everything here — Shea Diamond turns even the most overused platitudes of struggling and overcoming into sharp, convincing insights with the heavy punch of her vocal. Although obviously completely different in style, her voice makes me think of Leonard Cohen — both possess the depth and integrity gifted by multiple autobiographies-worth of experience. Fuck bearded dudes with guitars; this is true authenticity. 
[7]

Jonathan Bradley: Shea Diamond’s “I Am Her” is, superficially, a lot like another song we’re covering today, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s “Human.” Both make an assertive statement of self over bluesy, rhythm-driven production, each hinting at a transcendental presence hovering about their self, as if a beat stiff enough and a voice rich enough could summon these spectres into the corporeal realm. “I Am Her” is better though: its lick is hotter and Diamond’s invocations of shadows and outcasts, stenches and Southern hospitality suggest more than is spoken. It adheres close to a well-established form; nevertheless, it proves there is life — and new perspectives — to be found from within these old approaches.
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Tim de Reuse: While some parts of this track are a little repetitive or rough around the edges, the most important (and, happily, the most prevalent) element is not: Shea Diamond. She ignores rhyming schemes, running circles around the loping instrumental, and strains to a lovely climax in the second verse, voice bobbing and weaving and twisting and punching; one of my favorite little details is how the “Her” in “I Am Her” is pronounced with a forceful twist, percussive and biting. On the surface, the phrase might be interpreted as self-affirming, but under Diamond’s precise delivery it’s also an announcement: she locks eyes with the audience and compares herself to an outcast in everybody’s life, a dark cloud in everybody’s sunlight, and a shadow in everybody’s front door, declaring at once the universality of her experience and a resolve to not be ignored. I am not sure that I’ve heard a more incisive, affecting choice of words in any song this year.
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