It seems like Trixie Mattel is embodying the different career paths that her inspiration, Barbara Millicent Roberts, (yes, Barbie herself) has taken throughout her iconic lifetime. Barbie’s done it all and Trixie Mattel is out to give her a run for her money. Although Trixie’s career is considerably shorter than her fellow Wisconsinite’s, her latest album and comedy tour, prove that she has done quite a bit of growing in the last year. Trixie Mattel might be Grown Up, but she is still clinging on to her playful, cartoon-like humor and aesthetic.
Trixie Mattel looking like Malibu Barbie. What a beaut!
Her latest musical endeavor Barbara shows this even further. Inspired by her time living in California after moving from her native Wisconsin, post-Drag Race success, the sounds on Barbara are fresh, nostalgic and still very fun, just like Miss Barbie herself. Taking a lighter approach to her music on Barbara in comparison to her first two projects “Two Birds”, and “One Stone”, the album is still chockful of references to her musical inspirations and plays like the soundtrack to your favorite childhood Saturday morning cartoons.
Listening to Barbara feels like taking a trip down the East Coast with the top down (and I will put my hand in the fire saying that the Scooby Gang probably listened to this on a loop). Although 8 songs long (7 of them originals), the depth of the lyrics and the album’s production makes up for it.
Malibu is light, summery, and fun, with a catchy chorus; basically that song you would hear and then be stuck humming for hours, while you imagine sunny beaches, warm sunlight and the ocean breeze.
Barbara album cover
“We Got The Look” is a fun drag-tastic track that exudes the very confidence that Trixie brings every time she steps out on the stage or in front of the camera. On the Grown Up tour, she served looks on looks on looks, revealing no less than five costume changes during the first number. Who would’ve thought this Midwest Barbie knew anything about fashion?
I am convinced “Girl Next Door” and “Jesse Jesse” live in the same universe as Katy Perry’s "Teenage Dream" album and Fountain of Wayne’s “Stacy’s Mom” with its tongue in cheek lyrics and not-so-coy demeanor. Brian’s not-so-innocent crush on Jesse Eisenberg is brought to life in “Jesse Jesse” in all its sticky magazine page and hopeful, one-sided lover glory.
“Gold” is an introspective slow track that examines Trixie’s current relationship and examines the dreams we build for ourselves about white picket fences and Hollywood movie romances with the happily ever after, reflecting on a romantic connection that has gone south.
“I Don't Have A Broken Heart” is sweet and vulnerable, trying to mask what a lover is feeling about his relationship, ambiguous in its delivery. Is it coming from a truthful, accepting place, or are the lyrics those of a tired person who is sad to see another failed relationship crumble yet again?
Trixie is no stranger to paying homage to her music idols, like indirectly referencing Dolly Parton on “Red Side of the Moon” in Two Birds. It is fitting that the final track, “Stranger,” is a cover of Lavender Country’s “Can’t Shake the Stranger out of You.” It is the perfect homage and love letter to the first openly gay country music artist and album, making it quite the full-circle moment for the drag performer who mentions country acts like Dolly Parton as her idols and further inspiration. You can read more of the interview here.
(Full circle moment, we love those.)
Trixie Mattel: Grown Up 2020 Tour Poster
The Grown Up tour stopped by Milwaukee on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at the Turner Hall Ballroom (where I saw her for the second time, hey!) and as always, Trixie was thrilled to play in the home town that she performed for to keep her lights on and for a drink ticket or two before being on Drag Race. With new experiences to draw material from during her year off from touring, Trixie came back with a revamped show that was equal parts music, equal parts comedy, all Trixie. The show begins with interludes featuring Drag Race bestie Katya Zamolodchikova, in a hilarious and completely unethical (HIPAA who?) physical exam that ultimately diagnoses Trixie as old. Not old, but rather “Grown Up,” as Trixie corrects her. The show segues into music numbers with her new live band joining her for the tour, sprinkled with video interludes that perfectly capture her aesthetic and her dark and wicked sense of humor that she so beautifully hides behind her exaggerated make-up. The irreverent reworkings of children’s board games and toy commercials from the past distort the innocence and naiveté with which they were created. It feels like a teenager who goes through puberty and is suddenly too cool to play with their childhood toys. Not Trixie Mattel, though. She loves collecting dolls, boasting an impressive collection (who played her passionate and uh, energetic audience members on the One Night Only Youtube special). The whole experience of the show felt like an escape from the mundane, like locking yourself in your teenage room to escape the challenges of puberty and early adulthood or the childish jokes and pranks you would play on your friends to prove how cool, grown-up, fun, and mature you were. It is in this contradiction, the sophisticated versus the immature, that her comedy lives.
Miss Tracy Martel herself playing and making her hometown of Milwaukee laugh with her wicked sense of humor.
The perfect blend of vulnerable and fun, the album doesn’t take itself too seriously, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take Brian Firkus seriously. Donning more electrical sounds on “Barbara” than the acoustic folk and country sounds of “Two Birds” and “One Stone”, he continues to experiment with the limits of folk and country music, queering up a genre that is typically considered anything but. He sings, he plays instruments, cracks jokes and is the CEO of HIS own makeup company, all in drag; is there anything he can’t do?
Using Barbie as an inspiration for the character that has made everybody on the Internet laugh, Brian continues showing that there is nothing that Trixie Mattel can’t do. She continues growing, still demonstrating that she is still playful, funny and irreverent, the exact opposite of her idol.
Listen to “Barbara” below.