You can see Peaches live in The Hague on April 25.
A Decade of Silence Ends with a Familiar Bang
After a ten-year absence from the album release schedule, Peaches has returned with No Lube So Rude, a record that confirms the electro-punk artist has lost none of her confrontational energy. The album serves as a potent reminder of her role as a fixture in queer culture, delivering a direct and unapologetically sexual message that feels both familiar and newly urgent in the current political climate.
Musically, the album revisits the raw, minimalist swagger that defined her earlier work. Tracks like “Hanging Titties” are built on spare, jiggling basslines and dubstep-influenced beats, providing a backdrop for her characteristically blunt lyrical delivery. Peaches’ style has never been about intricate wordplay; instead, her power comes from a straightforward and relentless insistence on her own terms, a quality that continues to resonate a quarter-century into her career.
From Provocation to Protest
While the album is steeped in the raunchy fun Peaches is known for, it is also one of her most overtly political works. The industrial crunch of “Fuck How You Wanna Fuck” directly names Brett Kavanaugh, the controversial U.S. Supreme Court justice whose appointment was seen as a significant blow to reproductive rights. While a specifically American reference, it taps into a global anxiety surrounding bodily autonomy that affects women and LGBTQ+ people everywhere.
This theme is further explored in a track that chants “Mifepristone/Progesterone/Suck on bone/Leave us alone.” The lyric cleverly links the fight for abortion access (Mifepristone) with the hormonal needs of both trans individuals and menopausal women (Progesterone), framing disparate struggles as a unified front for healthcare rights and freedom from political interference.
Aging, Desire, and Deeper Connections
At 59, Peaches continues to center her work on sexuality and desire, a position that remains a radical act for a woman in the public eye. The album implicitly challenges the notion that horniness is the exclusive domain of the young, or of male rock stars of a similar generation. This posturing is not just for shock value; it serves as a protective layer for a more vulnerable core.
The album is not without its softer moments. Tracks like the Sade-influenced “Panna Cotta Delight” and the Robyn-esque “Take It” explore themes of loneliness and the search for connection. These moments of introspection provide a counterpoint to the album's aggressive energy, suggesting a deeper purpose.
The closing tracks, such as the trance-inflected “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” and the '80s pop of “Be Love,” distill the album's ultimate message. In a period marked by political despair, Peaches offers a simple directive: “Show up/Go deep.” It’s a call to find humanity and connection beyond the surface, to endure, and to remain present for one another. For an artist who has long used the explicit to make a point, No Lube So Rude argues that the point has always been about finding a deeper, more resilient form of human connection.
