Trouble

Description

Trouble is a kind of patchwork: its 11 songs are not only eclectic in genre but play like stitched-together vignettes, fly-on-the-wall scenes in which Gina describes encountering a stranger on a train, or an argument with her teenage daughter, or the nostalgia of passing a certain part of your neighborhood that hasn’t changed for as long as you can remember. This is the politics of the everyday, a work that is feminist not because of slogans or placards, but because it is a candid portrait of a female artist who simply exists. “It’s a little off-kilter, a little wonky, and I always like to go there,” Gina says of the album’s intimate undertones. “I unofficially subtitled the album ‘Trouble I’ve Caused and Trouble I’m In,’ so the songs are based on that feeling, that dangerous place.” As such, the connecting factor that links all the songs in Trouble isn’t a single ideology, theme, or subject, but Gina herself. It’s her vision, influenced by her status as a rock icon, her voice as a trailblazing artist, and her outlook as a person who thinks life should sometimes be a little ridiculous. For a musician who has had such an impact on her genre, it’s downright invigorating to realize she still has so much to share with her audience—and frankly, Trouble only scratches the surface. “These songs came to me like a radio dial, waves scrolling through, and I just plucked them out of the air. Something clicks in the atmosphere, and I just grab it. I don't write an opus about one thing. I write an opus about being myself.”