The band Against Me! first announced work on a new album in November 2011.[9] The first sessions for the album were a false start, where the band started recording some basic tracks and then went on tour, and decided to scrap and start over when they got back from tour. Then, the record was completely recorded except for vocals when drummer Jay Weinberg quit the band. The band first tried to have fill-in drummer Atom Willard record drum tracks to match the previously recorded tracks, but it wasn't working.[10] Starting from scratch, the band began recording the album a final time at Studio 606 in February 2013.[11] In May 2013, long-time bassist Andrew Seward also left the band.[12] A month later, Fat Mike of NOFX joined the band in the studio,[13] playing on three songs, two of which appear on the album. That same month, tracking for the album was completed.[14]
Commercial performance
The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 23, their highest debut yet on the chart.[15] It also debuted at No. 6 on the Top Rock Albums chart,[16] with 10,000 copies sold in its first week. It has sold 45,000 copies in the United States as of August 2016.[17]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Transgender Dysphoria Blues received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 from 28 critic scores.[19] In his review for Now Magazine, Joshua Kloke described the record as having "career-defining clarity" and "increased confidence," writing that lead singer Laura Jane Grace "looks inward and employs conviction unheard since their 2002 debut, Reinventing Axl Rose."[27]Will Hermes of Rolling Stone rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, and called it "A series of bracing songs about a self-destructive girl in a boy's body, it's a thematic offspring of Lou Reed (see Berlin, etc.)", and noted how "it takes balls to come out this way, in this genre" wishing Grace "God-speed, sister."[2] Also, Hermes said that the album musically "sticks to the band's established brand of warrior-cry punkmetal", and this "limits the range of what might be an ever braver new world, one glimpsed on the softer acoustic 'Two Coffins.'"[2] Dan Weiss of Spin called the album "one of the most fascinating records of the year," rating it eight out of ten.[28]
In 2019, Loudwire ranked the album 23 in their "66 best rock albums of the decade."[29]
^PopMatters (January 18, 2016). "The 80 Best Albums of 2014". PopMatters. Archived from the original on December 20, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
^Rolling Stone Staff (December 1, 2014). "50 Best Albums of 2014". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
