“This album is about reconnection,” declares Cristal Ramierez in a video announcing The Aces’ new album, I’ve Loved You For So Long. The comments on this are flooded with adoration from fans, praising her honest introduction to their next project as she talks about reconnecting with her younger self – a queer teenager held captive in a conservative suburbia. Though a far cry from the self-assured narrator on ILYFSL, it’s clear that Rameirez is singing to that same trapped teen, and all the others across the world.
On the album’s titular opener, our narrator realises that the greatest relationships of their life have been platonic, not romantic. And though the album doesn’t renounce love completely, it’s constantly thwarted by anxieties and competing affections, as evidenced on “Always Get This Way,” where Ramierez finds her anxiety directly impacting her relationships. In the song’s visualiser, she buries herself under the sheets, only to emerge decked-out in a full suit, mic in hand, to sing the chorus. The group dons accompanying garb in other visuals, inspired by old photoshoots of The Rolling Stones and seeking to reinvent the traditional presentation of the all-male, all-powerful boy band.
Subsequently, the group appears most unified on this record, coming together with balanced production that leans into 80s synth sonics and 00s pop rock – a matured sound that’s best seen on songs like “Solo,” marrying earnest songwriting with rhythmic guitar hooks.
Having come a long way from their first project where they avoided the use of female pronouns, ILYFSL sees the band proclaiming their queer joy from the rooftops, and aptly titling their first release from this record, “Girls Make Me Wanna Die.” This is continued on album highlight “Suburban Blues,” which sees Ramierez accepting her sexuality growing up under the stern gaze of the Mormon church in Utah.
“Everything I love I’m told I shouldn’t touch,” she sings on the second verse, “‘Cause good girls love Jesus / Not that girl from Phoenix” – a line that hits as hard as the chorus’ driving guitars. And though the album occasionally suffers from recycled melodies and lyrical cliches, moments like this shine through its tracklist, lighting The Aces’ path for a brighter, and more authentic future.
