The pop artist who records and performs using only his last name has produced one surprisingly dramatic song after another. For the most part, they all register as perfectly suited to his age and our times, even more marked by a lyrical style, rich in puns, as confessional as it is evasive – and oh so very intelligent.
Over the years and EPs, everything has only gotten better – everything, that is, except Fletcher’s personal life, at least when it comes to sex and love, or in regarding the part she conveys in the song.
His EP 2020 S(EX) BANDS was as bitter, brooding and bright as the best of Halsey or Tove Lo, to name two of his more established queer contemporaries.
Then, last fall, she came back with something entirely different: “girls girls girls,” the kind of song we didn’t know we needed, and the kind of song we wish Katy Perry launched his career instead of some gay-baiting breakthrough.
Over a rambling, seductive groove that only reinforces everything that’s true about Fletcher’s self-assured, cover-affirming and false about Perry’s teasing, teasing original, Fletcher shares his story of sparks flying after kissing a girl, before adding the kicker, with a sultry coo and twang, “I told my mom it’s not a phase.”
She ends the song with a quick laugh and the last takeaway. “I kissed a girl, no surprises: I really, really liked it.”
You can only imagine the sparks that will fly among a crowd of fans at the 9:30 Club, catching Fletcher live for the first time since his last tour in 2019.
Sunday March 20. Doors at 7 p.m. The 9:30 a.m. club is at 815 V St. NW. Tickets are $22. Call 202-265-0930 or visit www.930.com.
To see more upcoming tour dates for Fletcher, click here.
