It’s situationship summer – didn’t you hear? On his first official full-length solo album, shape-shifting TOMGIRL Quentin rolls through contemporary dating’s most universal humiliation ritual with buoyant pop-rock glee. Glistening synths and driving bass propel the genderfluid songwriter through the early stages of one-sided infatuation: “Just a girl who loves fiction,” she chirps, unbothered, on opening reverie “PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES,” before a grim guitar melody on “revolve” hints at the relationship’s destruction. True to life’s nonlinear recovery trajectory, gorgeous harmonies from the Austin Music Award-nominated vocalist on the nine-song project’s heartsick title track signal a backslide following the hard-strummed guitars and boisterous lyrics of with-my-girls rocker “LUCY IN DISGUISE.” Still, album centerpiece “HELLO DENIAL” promises a brighter future for our narrator. With a foot-stomping groove and anthemic chorus, the queer artist pushes past a particularly brutal kind of rejection – that which comes from our closest, “straightest” confidantes – with unfettered, inspiring vulnerability. Even if their Mr. Big, pushing 30 with dumb tattoos, did put them through the ringer, by the time they croon “I wish you the best in all that you do” on the breezy, penultimate “don’t wait on me,” you believe them.
This article appears in September 11 • 2026.
