Call it the summer of the gay male singer-songwriter. Shortly after Steve Grand‘s plaintive, country-tinged “All-American Boy” went viral comes Eli Lieb‘s “Young Love,” a catchy summery ode to same-sex affection. And this time around, it’s reciprocated. The video, directed by Geoff Boothby is less Abercrombie like Grand’s and more American Eagle like, say, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Like the latter, “Young Love” is also kind of impossible not to, well, love.
On the other, more auto-tuned side of the spectrum is Mister Chase who steps in the ring for a cover of Neon Hitch’s “Fuck U Betta”. The song wasn’t great to begin with and Chase doesn’t add to or detract from the original, except for the gay angle, of course. The video is actually a twofer — after devolving into what appears to be a 2(x)ist ad, there’s a lyric video to Chase’s “Tootsie Roll”. Sadly, this isn’t it.
MikeE
I rather enjoyed Eli Lieb’s song, but I actually really liked Lieb’s cover of Skyfall! surprised as I generally don’t like covers.
but that “Mister Chase” video? wow… obnoxious. another voiceless wonder saved by technology.
Dev.C
Well none of these younger guys are as polished as Sam Sparro, MIka or Adam Lambert but they get a E for effort.
Eli Leib’s song is kinda forgettable and lacks a real catchy hook, which Steve Grand standard country song has.
Mister Chase just comes off as Cheesy and a copy of every other Mike Munich or Colton Ford sound alike.
I hate when people repurpose dances and songs from my youth and turn them into the complete opposite of what they
were meant to be, Shameful!
Fael
@Dev.C: You should be thankful that we have gay artists making good music, regardless of whether you liked it or not. Try not to be overly critical.
redcarpet
Is it just me or does every gay male musician sound like a Broadway/Glee clone? Sure their voices are pretty but they have no edge or variety to them.
Where is the gay Jagger or Springsteen clone? That would interest me more.
redcarpet
Forgot about Adam Lambert, he’s probably an exception to my observation.
Alan down in Florida
I thought that the first two were semi-OK but I loved Tootsie Roll!!! Sounds like a perfect fun summer song – the kind that gets into your head and drives you crazy because you can’t stop singing it.
Brian
Eli Lieb is a singer/songwriter, while Mister Chase is more dance/pop music. Yet, they both bring great things with their music. I don’t understand why LGBT members will praise the diva’s, who also load their music with autotune and cheesy videos, yet they bash LGBT artists who do the same thing. Try and show some support for artists who will struggle to even get to the middle, only because they are open about who they are.
Can you name any gay singers that have hit it big? In the past 10 years?
MikeE
@Brian: Well, being a classical music fan who still enjoys a good ABBA tune every once in a while, I have to say that my tastes are more on the conservative side (is “conservative” still considered a bad word?).
I find that most pop singers’ voices are lacking. But that’s my opera upbringing.
I don’t care for ANY singer who relies on autotune, big name or small. Which is why I very much enjoyed Eli Lieb’s videos.
RobNYC1980
Actually, filters and autotune are two separate things. The chorus in fuck u betta is autotuned, the verses sound like stacked vocals to me. Go praise Cher or Madonna one more time, or Britney or gaga or Rihanna. Gays who are so hyper critical of others who put themselves out there infuriate me. Go hide behind your anonymous queerty dishrag profiles.
MikeE
@RobNYC1980: “putting yourself out there” is never a free pass for not doing something of quality.
You’ve obviously not been on Queerty very long if you think that the list of “divas” you tossed off gets “praised” here. No matter what any of them do, they get trashed.
Windhover
@RobNYC1980: I have to agree with MikeE on this. People who put themselves out there invite comments, whether positive or negative. And I’m always irritated when only negative comments get are called anonymous. Most comments on the internet are anonymous, and if you don’t object to the anonymity of the positive comments you have no standing to object to the anonymity of the negative comments. Having said that, I thought both videos were fun in a fairly low-grade way. But what are stacked vocals?
Windhover
@Windhover: Sorry for not deleting ‘get’ in my previous comment.
CreoClay
As happy as I am that Mister Chase’s own singing career is starting to gain some traction I really wish he would put out more ASL covers like he use to.