With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share five records THEY love. Photo credit: James Douglas
Seemingly out of nowhere, Beth Seymour popped onto our radar this year. First with You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head, together with her band The Lizzies. Then with a Ramonescore side-project called Hormones (read our review). And there’s more good Seymour news: November 28th, Outside, You’d Love Me To Death will be released (pre-order the CD or Cassette here), the follow-up to You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head. Both albums are part of an autobiographical arc that’s as raw as it is rewarding. Here are two of the early singles from the upcoming album. [continue reading below]
Here’s what makes Seymour’s music hit different: she takes “write what you know” to heart in a way few artists dare to. Beth came out as transgender in 2024 and has since been writing with a freedom and honesty that’s rare and necessary. Her songs tackle identity, mental health, and the messy, painful process of becoming yourself—heavy stuff, sure, but she delivers it with an uplifting energy, and self-depreciating humor. The new Beth Seymour & The Lizzies record picks up where the last one left off: the aftermath of a total mental collapse, the slow rebuilding of a self, and the eventual liberation of living openly as who she truly is. We will write more on Outside, You’d Love Me To Death in a review next week. Spoiler alert: we love it.
Plenty of reason to reach out to Beth for a Gimme 5 feature. Below, Beth discusses five records that have been massive for finding her true self. Enjoy reading and listening! Follow Beth Seymour & The Lizzies and Hormones on Bandcamp to keep up with future releases, for other updates, follow on IG here and here.
Beth Seymour: “The journey to releasing my first two albums under my true name and identity as Beth Seymour & The Lizzies has been a lifetime in the making. The music I love has been so entwined with my identity over the years that telling my life story through the records I’ve loved felt like the perfect marriage of ideas. So here I give to you my life story in five of my favourite albums, ultimately leading me to the creation of my new album Outside, You’d Love Me To Death.”
Alkaline Trio || From Here to Infirmary
“Alkaline Trio was the first band I ever truly obsessed over in my early teens and, even now, you can hear their influence so clearly in my songwriting. The magic of this band is how they combine the most sugary, poppy songs you can write with being a dark and tortured little freak. Very relatable when you’ve got a whole lot of personal demons you really don’t want to think about, and the catharsis of singing along to these songs still helps me to this day.”
My Chemical Romance || Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
“There’s this chicken/egg situation where I wonder if I was drawn to this band in my late teen years because I got to express femininity in my appearance, or if joining the fandom was what made me feel comfortable playing with gender. Whatever the case, ‘My Chem’ are a band with extreme queer vibes and — whether I knew it or not — this resonated with me. There couldn’t be a more perfect band for any young person who feels misunderstood.”
Against Me! || Transgender Dysphoria Blues
“I’d be remiss as a trans artist not to acknowledge this essential album. Against Me! were already one of my favourite bands before Laura came out, but when this album dropped I felt truly seen. True Trans Soul Rebel is basically the national anthem for trans punks. I used to play a lot of Against Me!’s back catalogue when I would go busking in my early 20s, and I think that’s what made me switch from power chords to playing open chords in my own songs.”
The Lemonheads || Car Button Cloth
“I discovered The Lemonheads in my 20s by hearing some songs on a compilation and then picking up this album secondhand from a charity shop. The power pop aspect of my music is lifted directly from my love of this band. There’s something in the smoothness of Evan Dando’s voice over those layers of sparkly guitars that is so comforting. When I was younger, I thought that great lyrics had to be detailed and wordy — falling in love with The Lemonheads taught me that you can say less and still convey a lot of meaning.”
The Beths || Future Me Hates Me
“It seems funny that I missed The Beths until they were due to release their third album. I was in my early 30s, still in the closet and on the verge of transitioning when I found them, and I already knew my name was going to be Beth, so it felt like this band was created just for me. This is doubled down by them being the perfect combination of my musical interests (sardonic lyrics, power pop arrangements, walls of guitars). I was also getting into producing my own music around the same time, and this album is the measuring stick I aspire to with my own records. Just a truly perfect band.”
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