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How do you craft queer joy, kinship, and homes in music? Mainstream culture is filled with ready-made anthems for pride, queer desire, and safe spaces like Chappell Roan\u2019s \u201cPink Pony Club\u201d<\/a> and \u201cHot To Go\u201d<\/a> among others from recent queer pop waves<\/a>. While mainstream queer musical culture can be deeply satisfying and rally community, it can also feel hollow when representation and inclusion fail to provide safety.<\/p>\n As queer\/trans lives are increasingly imperiled in the US, there\u2019s something quietly radical about art that thrives in the affective and interpersonal subtleties that make community possible. What if We\u2019re Beautiful<\/em>, a recent collaboration between composer Daniel Thomas Davis<\/a> and Hub New Music<\/a>, finds an intriguing niche in this space between folk art, pop, and poetry. Over six short tracks, the album presents a decidedly homespun take on queer kinship and joy that grasps at the ineffable experiences of queer community.<\/p>\n Born from Hub New Music\u2019s touring\/commissioning program<\/a> exploring identity, chosen family, and \u201chome,\u201d What if We\u2019re Beautiful<\/em> departs slightly from Davis\u2019 penchant for operatic camp theatrics and multilayered drama (his opera Six.Twenty.Outrageous<\/em> gives Cole Escola\u2019s Oh, Mary!<\/em><\/a> a run for its money). The work is an exercise in \u201cgift-craft,\u201d offering songs as mementos to queer friends and kin. From the outside, there\u2019s an alluring opacity to these musical gifts: names are furtively and tenderly rendered as initials, and text is eschewed for refracted instrumental affects. What coalesces is an intimate appreciation of the varied and often complicated ways we feel, experience, and give joy as queer people.<\/p>\n The opening tracks weave contrasting textures to create buoyant scenes that allude to the dynamic intimacy of queer kinship. \u201cSong for L.H.\u201d begins with an inquisitive yet insistent ensemble melody filigreed with agile cello and bass clarinet ornaments and delicate suspensions that stretch across cadences. A rapid violin arpeggio enters to recontextualize the ensemble melody, giving it rhythmic urgency and textural depth.<\/p>\n \u201cPrelude for J.W. and K.H.\u201d similarly plays with transformation and texture. Michael <\/a>Avitabile<\/a> and Gleb Kanasevich<\/a> deftly stitch tight clusters of flute and clarinet pitches together with crisp articulations, relaxing into open harmonies and a fluttering melodic line. Jesse Christeson<\/a> and Magnolia Rhorer<\/a> border these shifts with string pizzicati and percussive tapping, shifting to spacious arpeggios stretched across octaves.<\/p>\n A standout track on the album, \u201cAnthem for M.M.,\u201d finds space for queer nostalgia by refashioning and reimagining tradition. The opening violin and cello duet introduces a rich, low chorale, finding luxurious double stop harmonies and breathy\/twangy bowing reminiscent of Southern congregation singing and fiddle traditions. Hub\u2019s interpretation develops out of these well-worn comforts: vibrato, trills, and glissando emerge from cadences in a delicate flamboyance, and exuberant countermelodies grow from cadential harmonies and phrase breaths.<\/p>\n