My Bright Light Bright Light Top 10
Discovering Troye Sivan last year was a watershed moment for me both as a music fan and as a gay man. I never thought openly gay pop stars like him were possible before, but once I realized Troye wasn't an anomaly I began digging deep into this current wave of Queer pop music. I started following Spotify's Out Now Playlist and the first day I listened to it I made 2 big discoveries. The first was Years & Years, who I wrote about earlier, and the other was Bright Light Bright Light.
The song I heard by Bright Light Bright Light was Uh Huh and I liked it immediately. The first thing that jumped out for me was the horns and sax. I am a huge sucker for the saxophone, especially in pop music. It's almost a guarantee that adding a saxophone to a song will automatically make me like that song 20% more. Unfortunately, the saxophone quietly disappeared from pop music during the 90s and was pretty much non-existent throughout the 2000s. Yet, in the last 10 years it seems that horns, and especially the saxophone, have made a comeback thanks to acts like Saint Motel and Capital Cities. Plus, pop divas are adding the saxophone back into their dance songs such as Problem by Ariana Grande. The sax in Uh Huh though sounded very mid 80s to me and the song reminded me of pop hits that I loved from that era such as Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone by Glass Tiger and Ce'st La Vie by Robbie Neville.
In fact, as I started digging into Bright Light Bright Light's music it became clear that he loved 80s and 90s pop music. In particular many of his songs featured horns, which reminded me of mid 80s pop, while other songs featured house style piano that took me right back to early 90s club music. When it comes to pure pop music the 80s and early 90s is my favorite era until Queer pop arrived in the late 2010s. Bright Light Bright Light is a Queer pop star who seems to be as enamored with this era of dance pop as I am. It also didn't surprise me to learn that Bright Light Bright Light is actually a few years older than me. Most of Queer pop stars right now are younger than me and in their 20s, but Bright Light Bright Light, along with Jake Shears, are among the few Queer pop stars right now who are a few years older than I am. In that way they kind of feel like the elder statesman of this current wave of Gay Pop music in much the same way U2 and R.E.M. felt like the elder statesman of Alternative rock during the 90s after Grunge exploded.
I bring this up because most of the current Queer pop stars are very influenced and nostalgic for pop music in the 00s, but Bright Light Bright Light goes further back then all of them. It's also clear that Bright Light Bright Light is just as much a music junkie and pop music historian as I am. On top of being a musician, Bright Light Bright Light is also a DJ who currently lives in New York City where he hosts a weekly afternoon Dance Party called The Romy and Michelle dance party at Club Cumming. Each week he posts his DJ setlist on Twitter and it's stuffed with pop divas such as Madonna, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Cher, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, and many more. He even digs deep with acts like Cathy Dennis, Taylor Dayne, Paula Abdul, Expose and more. Basically Bright Light Bright Light is throwing the kind of dance party I wish every club had because that's the kind of music I want to dance and sing along to when I go out clubbing. Seeing his DJ setlists every week makes me want to take a trip to New York City at some point just so I can attend his Romy and Michelle dance parties.
Bright Light Bright Light also posts frequently about his extensive album collection on social media. He'll pull out one of his vinyl albums and discuss acts ranging from Erasure to K.D. Lang and how those albums influenced him growing up. Bright Light Bright Light has also started a blog series about songs that should have charted higher on the U.K. singles chart (Since he is originally from Wales before relocating to New York City), which shows just how passionate and dedicated he is to pop music and pop music history. Really I feel him and I could hang out at a bar together and discuss and dissect pop music for hours on end. He feels like the gay pop star who could not only keep up with me, but actually introduce me to some pop music I might not know yet from the 70s, 80s or 90s. That said, I do respond to a lot of his Twitter posts, especially when it's pop diva related, and he usually responds to all my tweets. We have exchanged some opinions, rankings, lists and reviews of pop divas on his Twitter wall over the past year. Also Bright Light Bright Light is head over heels in love with Mariah Carey. She is his muse, his inspiration, his everything!
Bright Light Bright Light has also worked extensively with Elton John, who is basically the reigning King of all Queer Pop music period right now. Bright Light Bright Light has not only opened for Elton John on tour at 55 concerts, they've also collaborated together on many songs. This fall Bright Light Bright Light is opening up for Cher on her European tour. Bright Light Bright Light has also collaborated with and opened for Scissor Sisters, Erasure and Alan Cumming among others, which shows the kind of respect and admiration Bright Light Bright Light has within the music industry even though he is still an indie artist and not signed to a major label.
Bright Light Bright Light has one foot in the past and one foot in the future and his connection to both the Queer pop stars operating now and those that helped pave the way makes his music feel like the bridge between Queer Pop's past and its future. That's probably why I find his music so appealing since I too have an equal investment in pop music in the here and now (thanks to Queer pop) as well as the past several decades. Like me, Bright Light Bright Light appreciates the way pop music's past has led to its present and he loves sharing his love of music with others. We both have probably made way too many mix tapes and mix CDs over the years for ourselves and for our friends and family. Just judging from his DJ set lists, themed dance parties and endless countdowns it's clear we both love to re-contexualize and critique our favorite songs constantly as well. Therefore I can think of no better way to honor Bright Light Bright Light then counting down my top 10 favorite songs by him.
10. Little Bit
While Bright Light Bright Light's music is mostly upbeat pop songs, he has a few mid tempo bops such as Little Bit. The slicked up production, smooth vocals and tasteful horns remind me of late 80s Steve Winwood, which is a good thing! My parents played Steve Winwood all the time in their car when I was growing up so that kind of late 80s yuppie soft rock has a big nostalgic pull on me. Little Bit has that nostalgic pull too as result.
09. Kiss For Kiss
A duet between Bright Light Bright Light and Scissor Sister's frontman Jake Shears, a group who's retro sound and blatantly Queer image during the 00s helped pave the way for Queer pop stars like Bright Light Bright Light. This song has a darkly seductive atmosphere that makes it very sexy! I can picture the two singers dancing together to this at the gay club under the neon light. It's a song that helps make dancing at the club feel like the foreplay before sex.
08. I Believe
This is my favorite song off Bright Light Bright Light's 2014 sophomore album Life is Easy. It's really all about the build up to the chorus with this song. "I don't know what you've done to me but I Belieeeeeve It" will most definitely get stuck in your head.
07. Running Back To You
Another mid-tempo bop, but this one features Elton John! Bright Light Bright Light and Elton John worked together extensively on Bright Light Bright Light's 2016 album Choreography and it it's a natural pairing that enhances any song they sing together on. The song has a moody opening but that mood lifts greatly by the time the beat and chorus enter.
06. Symmetry of Two Hearts
Bright Light Bright Light's 2016 album Choreography not only features a lot of Elton John, it's the album where horns and saxophones make a huge impact on his overall sound. The earlier albums were more early 90s dance club, but this album is very much mid 80s pop due to those horns. Of course, as I said I am sucker for brass instruments, especially saxophones, so that's probably why I have more songs off this album on this list than his other albums. Symmetry of Two Hearts sounds like the kind of song Phil Collins and Eric Clapton were cranking out around 1985/1986 and that's OK by me. Some really good sax at the end too.
05. Love Part 2
Bright Light Bright Light's 2012 debut album Make Me Believe in Hope is much more dance and club oriented than his later output. The songs off Choreography sound like they were made for mid 80s pop radio, whereas songs like Love Part 2 could have slipped in between Haddaway and Londonbeat on Club MTV back in the early 90s.
04. All In the Name
This song is all about it's huge sing along chorus, which announces itself immediately at the start of the song. It's also the best use of horns & sax on the Choreography album and it features a memorable vocal from Sir Elton on its second verse. Definitely one of the biggest ear worms in Bright Light Bright Light's entire catalogue and the peak of the Choreography album in my opinion.
03. Feel It
As much as I like the Choreography album the most overall, Bright Light Bright Light's debut album has higher peaks for me, chief among them Feel It. Just like the sax, I'm a sucker for piano in dance pop music, especially early 90s house piano, which Feel It most definitely has in spades! I also love that beat that sounds like it's bouncing off the walls of a very small room. Still when that chorus hits and the piano comes back to it's dance pop heaven! We also have some soulful female vocals at the end too, which reminds me of C+C Music Factory, Black Box and Good Vibrations by Marky Mark. This one's a definite bop!
02. Waiting for the Feeling
As much as I enjoy Feel it, I love Waiting for the Feeling even more. They both have that early 90s house piano club sound, but the piano on this one grabs me even more. That piano riff is very memorable and catchy in and of itself and is one of the strongest hooks on Waiting for the Feeling. The lead up to the chorus features more great dance beats and when it all comes to together on that chorus, well I may have experienced an eargasm or 2 listening to it. This is Bright Light Bright Light at his best. It's a dance song that is still infused with enough emotion and pop hooks to transcend the dance floor and become a perfect pop song.
01. Uh Huh!
This is the song that introduced me to Bright Light Bright Light and it's still my favorite. It's an extension of the horn driven mid 80s pop sound of Choreography, but it's better than all the songs off Choreography (as good as they still are.) Everything about this song is hooky to me, from the beat during the verses, the repeated choir saying "Uh Huh" to that 10 story chorus! Uh Huh sounds like it could have been a #1 smash back in 1986, but even in 2018 it was one of the best songs of the year. Uh Huh remains not just my favorite Bright Light Bright Light song but one of my favorite songs of this past decade period. A high point for this current wave of Queer pop!
