My Bronze Avery Top Ten Countdown
Right now L.A. seems to be the central hub for the current Queer Pop movement. Much like San Francisco in the late 60s (The Counterculture Hippies), New York & London in the late 70s (Punk & New Wave) and Seattle in the early 90s (Grunge & Alternative Rock), L.A. has been attracting various Queer acts who see the city as a place where they can express themselves freely and be part of a scene that will support their art.
One of the central figures right now in the L.A. Queer pop scene is Bronze Avery. Bronze Avery seems to be friends with just about everyone who is part of this scene in L.A. right now. In many of the Queer pop artists insta stories & and tweets you see Bronze Avery mentioned or hanging out with them in photos or videos. Bronze and his boyfriend have had cameos in other Queer artists music videos for acts like Miss Benny & Carlos Vara. Other Queer pop acts such as Elliot Jones appear in Bronze's music videos too. Bronze was part of Proud 365, an all queer music lineup from last year, and he was the first act to be interviewed on Jon Ali's On Track where Jon interviews various Queer musicians. Bronze Avery also just launched a new podcast with Shawn Binder called Casual Talk where he and Shawn interview different people from L.A. and so far all the guests have been queer as well. In general Bronze Avery appears to be the a light for this community who supports and inspires the other Queer acts through his own art and likable personality.
In my eyes Bronze Avery is already a superstar and I think many of the other Queer musicians look at Bronze the same way as well. Sure Bronze is still technically an indie act in the grand scheme of pop music currently but he already feels like someone who's music should be blaring out of car radios across the world and who's slickly produced videos should be racking up millions of views. Bronze's music contains the hallmarks of what people love about pop music. His songs showcase stylized production that's both cutting edge & nostalgic, hooks for days, great vocals and all his songs are beaming with personality.
I discovered Bronze pretty early during my initial flush with Queer pop after discovering Troye Sivan. Want 2 by Bronze Avery was on the Out Now playlist and it grabbed my ear. I'll admit it's not my favorite song by him but it put Bronze on my radar and slowly but surely over the course of 2019 Bronze kept releasing songs that were getting better and better. By the end of 2019 Bronze Avery had officially become one of my favorite musicians in the entire Queer Pop scene.
Below I'm gonna countdown my 10 favorite Bronze Avery songs. He has about 13 songs total right now so this covers the majority of his output as of March 2020. Bronze is never comfortable resting on his laurels though and we should be getting more music from him starting around April or May. Hopefully a tour is soon to follow.
10. Goodbye
Goodbye is about the men in the gay community who are just looking for hookups and meaningless sex. Bronze starts off singing:
"Every guy is a waste of time
Everything is so undefined
All they want is to take a bite
All they want is to stay the night.”
Bronze on the other hand is not gonna settle for less, because he doesn't want one night stands:
"I'm just down to get my head right
Have a drink on a first-class flight
Feeling like I’m just too polite
I just gotta say good damn bye."
The part where Bronze sings "good damn bye" is the best hook of the song especially because it feels so empowering to say it much like Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson or Part of Me by Katy Perry.
9. Faking
Faking was the first single to be released off Bronze Avery's first EP Retrospect and it continued to prove why Bronze was one of the fastest growing stars of Queer pop last year. The production is layered but accessible and Bronze's voice is smooth with a bit of a sexual edge to it. The song itself is one of Bronze's sexiest where he sings:
"You've got magic hands cause no one touches me like you do
Your eyes put me in a trance and hurt me just like voodoo
Are we gonna leave, are we gonna leave this place
Are you gonna say, say it right to my face."
This song is a bit of a grower track but the more you hear it the more you want to come back to it.
8. Pressure
Pressure is one of Bronze's most overlooked singles in my opinion. Like Faking this is another sexually charged bop with Bronze singing:
"You're giving me hot pressure
When our bodies meet together
No one else can do the things that you do
I'm gonna let you, so come on and put on that pressure"
The production is just as sexual as the lyrics. Earlier in the song Bronze sings about his heartbeat and once he says that you hear that production beep in the background that seems to mimic a rhythmic heartbeat. Those little production tricks heat up the song even more as a result The production here I think is really great and it was one of the first songs I really liked by Bronze after I first discovered him.
7. Leave Together
Bronze Avery said Leave Together wasn't the first song he wrote but it was the first he wanted to release to establish himself and his brand and I think that he was on point when he made that decision. Leave Together features memorable production right from the start and it sees Bronze already being openly gay:
"Come and light my fuse
What do you got to lose?
We don't have to call it forever
Boy, all I want is you
When you look at me like you do
Eyes are good, but hands make it better”
This track established the Bronze Avery brand perfectly and it was clear that he not only had the talent but also on record presence and charisma to burn. You wanted to know more about Bronze after hearing this song and that's the best thing a debut single can do. I also need to point out quickly that Bronze references Kryptonite since I'm a bit of a DC comics nerd and I actually like Superman a lot now.
6. Spilling Out
Bronze had been releasing stylish singles that established his brand and what he was all about, but it was when Bronze released the double sided single Spilling Out and Anybody Else in the spring of 2019 that he truly started stepping up his game even more. As good as his earlier releases were, Spilling Out was even better showing how much Bronze had truly blossomed as a singer, songwriter and even as a producer. Then there's the music video, which depicts Bronze and many of the L.A. gay pop crew (including another one of my favs Elliot Jones), throwing a gay slumber party. They drink, dance, paint their nails, wear towels around their head, hang out in the hot tub, and basically just have a gay old' time! Let me tell you I wish had been able to go to a slumber party like this growing up!
5. Waste My Time
That opening production trick on Waste My Time where it sounds like the song is throbbing in and out of the speakers grabs hold of you from the very start and it never lets you go. Bronze Avery's Retrospect EP was everything Bronze had been building towards since the start and it was easily one of the best releases of 2019 as a result. Every track is a bop and a huge part of that is the production. In fact, Bronze became more and more involved in his own producing and mixing over the course of his singles that he eventually just took charge and the results pretty much speak for themselves. Lyrically this song is the flip side of Goodbye in that Bronze is now the one using another man for meaningless sex and he's determined to not let it go further than that when he sings:
"You were a fatal escape
I'm sorry that you didn’t see it that way
All that I want is to be in your arms
I'm in love with your smolder
I'm held by your charm
You’re a dream come true at the wrong time
I'm seeing visions you of you here in my mind
It feels so good when you lay on my heart
But to keep me together I'll keep us apart ‘cause."
Waste My Time was another slam dunk bop from an artist who seemed incapable of giving us anything less by that point.
4. Anybody Else
Anybody Else was a breakthrough moment for Bronze Avery because as he has said in the past, this was the the first song he decided to produce all by himself and it led him to realize that not only could he produce songs well, but maybe produce them even better than before since he could now get exactly what he wanted. I remember first hearing this song in the spring of last year and finding the production very appealing. Appealing enough that it kept bringing me back over and over again. This time lyrically Bronze Avery admits he is the reason the relationship between him and another man didn't work and like Cher he wishes he could go back in time and save the relationship before it was too late:
"How's it going
Tell me how’s it going babe
From the outside
Are you hurting
Tell me if you are, 'cause it'd be justified
[Pre Chorus]
’Cause I know we said a lot of things we do regret
Why do we do that, why do we do that
And I know I could've handled it with much more grace
But I miss you babe
Do you miss me babe
[Chorus]
I just wanna go back in time
Just to be right back by your side
'Cause I haven't got eyes for anybody else
No I haven't got eyes for anybody else”
Anybody Else also turned out to be a streaming breakthrough for Bronze thanks to a few Starbucks around the L.A. area adding it to their playlist rotations at their locations. It was fun to not only see Bronze, but many of the other queer pop stars post videos of themselves in Starbucks when they would hear Anybody Else come on.
3. Far
Another top notch bop off the Retrospect EP. This one just gets better and better every time I listen to it. I love the key change between the verses and chorus which gets stuck in my head very easily. This one deals with another dysfunctional relationship which has always been and always will be great fodder for pop music:
"You're not the happiest, but that makes me feel better (hm)
Don't wanna have to lie just to piece us together (ho-uh)
[Pre - Chorus]
I’m messing it up and walking right into corners
You should learn about love instead of running from orders
Not that we're out of luck but we should look into options
Gotta open the door and walk into something honest
[Chorus]
You're trying really hard and you're on a roll
But I’ve lost control of my feelings
You're going really far
Don't go all the way
‘Cause I wanna stay right here (oh)"
Honestly this is another perfect pop song!
2. Never Be You
Bronze Avery had my attention before Never Be You, but when he unleashed this bop over the summer of 2019 I became a devoted Bronze Avery Stan right there and then. First off major props to the slap drum which reminds me a bit of Troye Sivan's Bloom, which is my favorite song by Troye. I seem to be a sucker for slap drums and the one featured here is a doozy. Lyrically this an empowerment bop that can be read in one of two ways according Bronze. It can either be about an ex he's moved on from or it can be about how Bronze himself has grown and changed so much that he doesn't need his older self because his older self was too toxic. Never Be You quickly became one of my most heavily rotated songs of 2019 and I was sure it was gonna be Bronze's best song of the year until he released Retrospect and topped it with that EP's main single.
1. Messy
Messy is the crown jewel of the Retrospect EP. Here Bronze delves into Pop/Rock as we get to hear some electric guitar energy bursting through during the chorus. Those guitars showcase a new side of Bronze's style we had not heard before but it was thrilling to hear especially for someone like myself who is a pretty big rock fan. Lyrically this might be Bronze's best song because he is throwing shade left and right! While some think it's him talking about an EX, Bronze says it's really about how much he sometimes feels like his has to be the den mother to all the other gays in L.A. and has to always put on a brave face for them while they unload their drama and ask for advice. Bronze wonders what would happen if he turned around and told them all his drama:
"If I told your secrets would you still keep mine?
If I skip the tab would you pick up mine?
If all of my baggage fell on you
Would you carry it, like I always do?"
Then Bronze just flat asks if his friends would still be friends with him if he acted like they did all the time:
"If I ever got a little bit messy
If I could even let me
Would you go off and leave me?
Would you go off and hate me?
If I ever got a little bit messy
And let my shit just go free (mm-oh)
Quit picking up everyone
Who the hell would I be?
Ever I ever got a little bit"
Then Bronze goes for the jugular and throws all sorts of shade in my favorite lyrics to the song when he sings:
"If I f**ked my ex like you did last week
Another 3AM call, but this time it’s me
If I dropped the filter, hurt you good
Would you come around like you know I would?"
This is Bronze Avery giving zero f**ks and I'm so here for it! Everything about Messy is perfect. This is the kind of song that should be all over the radio airwaves because this is what great pop music sounds like. That said, Bronze has more music coming and based on past experiences I would not be surprised if he tops Messy and all his previous songs in 2020. Bronze Avery just gets better and better with each release and he is definitely one to look out for going forward this year!
