Cavetown, This Is Home | LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶

In the 7^th  edition of LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 (2023), we highlight the song, “This Is Home” performed by Cavetown.  

Be prepared to #SLAY! LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 embraces, highlights, and celebrates singles and tracks by LGBTQIA musicians or allies.  In this column, we provide background and insight into the respective musician(s), as well as analyze + go gaga over the decadent bops being served up.  Furthermore, when the music dictates deeper, more transcendent discussion, we ensure the point is articulated to the fullest.  All styles of music are welcome while the BOPZ can be classics or brand-spanking new. So, without further ado, in the 7^th edition of LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 (2023), we highlight 🎵 “This Is Home” performed by 🎙 Cavetown.

“Often, I am upset / That I cannot fall in love, but I guess / This avoids the stress of falling out of it.” Perhaps, 🎙 Cavetown, perhaps. On his 2015 song, 🎵 “This Is Home”, Cavetown (🎙 Robin Skinner) incorporates a range of emotions and topics. Skinner is a member of the LGBTQ community: a transgender male who is both aromantic and asexual.  Revisit the excerpted line, and Skinner (he/they) paints a clear picture of their identity as well as perhaps the identity crisis/issues they’ve faced.  Cavetown penned and produced “This Is Home” own their own, accompanying this authentic, vulnerable record with ukulele.  Beyond inviting the listener into this aromantic, asexual realm, Skinner also speaks to his mental health, as well as the perception of others.

The chorus also finds Cavetown opening up about gender, though it should be noted that Skinner didn’t come out as transgender until 2020.  His coming out was tied to past controversial, transphobic comments.  Focusing on the song, Skinner comments about cutting their hair, stares, and “Hiding my chest.” The second verse continues to find the then teenaged singer opening up about depression in morbid fashion (“Are you dead? Sometimes I think I’m dead / ‘Cause I feel the ghosts and ghouls wrapping my head”).  Continuing to compel with surprising authenticity and maturity given their age, the bridge finds Robin characterizing himself as a monster, being mentally “in a different place,” and essentially being confused about who he is.  A key lyric concludes this thought-provoking cut: “Tracing his face / But strangely he feels at home in this place.”  Not all LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 are built the same. 🎵 “This Is Home” is certainly a deeper record everyone, regardless of sexual preference or gender identity, should hear.

🎙 Cavetown • 🎵 “This Is Home” • 🏷 Oat Milk and Many Hats Endeavors • 🗓 2015

Cavetown, “This Is Home”: LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 No. 7 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner/ The Musical Hype; Oat Milk and Many Hats Endeavors; Anna Shvets, Monstera, Polina Tankilevitch, RODNAE Productions, Spencer Cooper, Uriel Mont via Pexels; Jim, Kurious via Pixabay; Hugo Herrera on Unsplash]