Album Review: Gavin Turek – Diva of the People

My introduction to Gavin Turek was with “Disco Boots”. A song about putting on your flyest boots, stepping out and letting the world know that you are indeed that bitch. Even if you don’t necessarily feel like that bitch. A song which had a music video of Turek strutting through the streets in the titular boots and a bucket of glitter paint, which I thought was a handbag, until she handed it off at the end of the video. If Balenciaga or Loewe or see the music video for “Disco Boots”, trust they will sell that shit as a handbag.

This also happened to be the music video where Turek introduced herself as ‘Diva of the People’, which at the time — unbeknownst to us — would be the title of her then upcoming album. And in retrospect, the song and music video is a great encapsulation of Turek. A carefree disco loving gal with one glittered foot in the opulence of the disco heyday and another grounded in the grit of reality — singing about the benign aspects of life which completely offsets the fabulousness of her rhinestone disco boots, big hair and overall aesthetic. It makes Turek seem like a disco queen from the 70s who was sucked into a wormhole, spat out into the year 2017 and has been stuck here ever since.

Gavin Turek – Diva of the People | Madame Gold Records

Diva of the People has a narrative — dating is the ghetto, which honestly coulda been the album title. All of the songs on the album (with one exception) chronicles an experience which Turek has had with a guy at different stages of a relationship. The album starts with Turek in a positive state of self affirmation and choosing to put herself out there. But over the course of the album Turek experiences setbacks — having realisations that men ain’t shit and that her desire to be with someone should never be a reason for her to overlook how trash a man is. But it’s not all lies, fallacy and turmoil. Turek also experiences true love. She also experiences the loss of somebody she loved. And she also finds new solutions — ‘Maybe I shouldn’t try to control this so much and just let the universe do what it do’.

An album about dating or falling in and out of love is by no means a wholly original concept. And yet Turek is able to deliver it in a way which still feels fresh, and draws you in because it’s all so earnest and relatable. And this is where the album title kicks in and makes even more sense. Turek carries herself like a diva and is inspired by legends such as (but not limited to) Diana Ross — who specifically gets a shout out — Chaka Khan and Donna Summer. But there is still a groundedness to her. With Ross, Khan and Summer, despite them often singing about very regular things like ‘This is my house, I live here and that’s my chair, I put it there’, there was still an otherworldliness about them. You could not ever envision Ross in IKEA picking out furniture. You couldn’t really relate to them at all, which became such a defining characteristic of what made them divas. Turek on the other hand is very relatable. She’s like ‘I am a diva. I will wear these glitter boots and this big hair and serve. But also, I am struggling with these deadbeat men just like you’. Even in the album intro “Diva’s Gotta Div” she openly declares she’s incomplete. She’s not perfect. She’s not THAT type of diva. Ross, Khan and Summer’s solution to deadbeat men was throwing their fur coat over their shoulder and hoppin’ in the Rolls. They knew they’d get another man within days. And if the new man ain’t shit, there will be another man days after that. They still gon’ be rich and fabulous. Dating? Girl, no. Line them up. Let them come to me. That ain’t a solution for a diva of the people. And this angle is what also gives the album this really cool edge. Turek is out here saying ‘This shit is hard for this generation of divas’.

Gavin Turek – Diva of the People | Madame Gold Records

It’s easy to become exhausted by disco, because EVERYBODY is doing it and doing it in the exact same way. But there is a certain type of magic to what Turek offers with this album. Firstly is the authenticity. You could play songs off of this album, tell them it was released in 1976 and they wouldn’t question it. Turek has a very similar vibe to Sam Sparro, in that her influences are so clear and she fully commits to a sound, just as Sparro did with his albums Boombox Eternal and Return to Paradise, the latter of which was a disco album. In fact, “Disco Boots” and “Friend Zone” could easily be a Sparro songs.

The production on this album is so damn smooth. The one thing about this album which is so masterful, is that whilst disco is the core sound of the album, it’s not the only sound on it. Much like Jessie Ware’s still criminally underrated 2020 album What’s Your Pleasure?, a better genre category for this album would probably just be dance music. But calling it a disco album wouldn’t be completely wrong either, as it is the dominant sound. It’s just not the only sound. And nor is it the only influence. Whilst the Ross and Summer comparisons are as clear as day, there are also very clear influences from the 90s and 2000s and tapping into of a very specific style of dance music you’d hear from Kaytranada, which really comes through on the song “Friend Zone”, which could easily be mistaken for a Kaytranada production. And then there is Michael Jackson, who many forget put out a whole disco album, which I think is because Jackson transcends genre in so many people’s minds, that Off the Wall doesn’t always register as a disco album. But his influence on Diva of the People is drawn from Thriller rather than Off the Wall, for the song “Back on the Market”, which literally sounds like “Thriller”. It’s an interesting choice for what the song is about — telling a guy if you’re not gonna step up, then I’mma put myself back out there. But it’s also kinda perfect. Because as aforementioned dating is truly the Witches’ Road. Spooky, treacherous and perilous. A dating song being a Halloween song!? Yes bitch.

Y’all know what’s also smooth? Turek’s vocals. She just glides across the music, above the music, through the music. She just has a type of voice which is nice on the ear. But she also has a really clear sense of how to approach different songs depending on the production of the song and the vibe. There’s never a sense that she’s fighting the beat, that she’s being drowned out by the music, that she’s ‘doing too much’ — which is also a testament to the stellar mixing across the album. There are also no two songs on this album which Turek sings in the exact same way, and yet there is a style that she has which is evident across every song. Turek’s voice is smooth and it’s soft, but there is a clear assuredness to it. And this assuredness is nice to hear, especially after her debut album Madame Gold, where it felt like Turek was hiding her voice in the music. Diva of the People still features songs where Turek’s voice is within the music, but this time around it feels more like a stylistic choice as opposed to Turek hiding. And it shows the confidence of an artist when they allow their voice to sit in music and not just on top of it, because they are thinking about which sonics work best for the song, as opposed to just ‘I wanna be the loudest thing on here’. And in Turek’s case, it absolutely works. Because as great as the production and the music on every song is, there’s not a single song where I thought ‘I just wanna hear the instrumental’. Because no song wouldn’t hit for me without Turek’s vocals as part of it. She is the music on every song. So, it’s great to hear Turek’s confidence in her own voice and that she’s no longer hiding it. Because the only way a diva can div is if she makes herself heard.

Gavin Turek – Diva of the People | Madame Gold Records

Those who frequent this shit-hole of a blog and read my reviews will know that I am big on albums being well sequenced. And I am glad to say that Turek truly is a Diva of MY People. She gets it. The sequencing of this album is near spot-on. I say near, because there is just OOOOOOOOOOONE instance where a song feels a bit misplaced. But we’ll get to that. The album flows from start to finish, with pretty much no gaps of silence between songs. It’s just back-to-back-to-back. Each song on this album is great and works as a stand alone song, but they truly work better together when experienced collectively as a body of work. BUT. I don’t think this album ends as well as I think it could have. “Off the Wheel” is a great song. And whilst it works as an album closer narratively, it doesn’t work sonically. “What’s a Girl to Do” would have made for a more fitting album closer, as it works both narratively and sonically. I think a better choice would have been to have had “Off the Wheel” sit closer to the top of the album or to have left it off the album completely. I think “Off the Wheel” would’ve been a great song to kick off a new album cycle with. But I get why Turek did include it, because the theme of ‘Girl, just let it go and let Jesus take the wheel’ works within the concept of the album. Also, the song is too fire to just sit on until Lord knows when.

The one thing which struck me the most as I was listening to this album, was just how joyous it felt. I was smiling the entire time, from start to finish. Turek manages to truly capture the essence of disco and dance music, which is unabandoned joy. There are many disco songs about the darkest of shit. But even so, there is always a silver lining to each song. There is always some element of joy. Even when Summer was singing about dropping her cake in the rain and having a breakdown in the middle of a park, the music is still bussin’ like ‘YES BITCH. THROW THE CAKE. TWIRL.’ And “Heaven Knows” encapsulates this combination of sorrow and joy so succinctly. “Heaven Knows” is a song about losing somebody you love. And yet, it’s not a dark song. And neither is it making light of the weight of losing somebody that you love. “Heaven Knows” is a song about acknowledging the pain and accepting the loss, but finding comfort in the memory of that person and existence of an afterlife where that person is happy. And even through this song I was still smiling. I was crying as I was smiling. But, bitch. I was still smiling dammit.

Gavin Turek – Diva of the People | Madame Gold Records

So much of this album is about failure in some form. Failure to see your own light. Failure to see your mistakes. Failure to understand. Failure to acknowledge that sometimes you’re better off on your own. Failure about acceptance. But Turek never frames a song as though she is a victim or as though her failure is a form of setback. Every failure is a lesson. Every failure is an anecdote. Every failure is a chance to make something right. And each and every time Turek dances through the failure to see the bright side. As somebody who is often so pessimistic and finds it hard to see the bright side of things, listening to this album and how Turek chooses to find the glitter and sparkles in every situation really made me pause and wonder if I could ever do the same. Could I lead with joy and optimism, as opposed to darkness and pessimism? It’s a necessary question to ponder, especially with the current state of the world — which Diva Of the People happens to be a welcomed distraction from. ‘Cos sometimes we’ve just gotta put on our disco boots and dance our way to joy, even if we’re not always feeling it at that moment. Because freeing is believing. And I guess this is part of what makes you a diva. Not just finding the light in a situation, but being that light yourself. And Diva of the People is a big ol’ beacon of it.

Album Highlights
▪ Outta My Mind
▪ IOU 🏅
▪ Back On the Market 🏅
▪ Anybody Home? 🏅
▪ You and Me 🏅
▪ Heaven Knows 🥇
▪ Friend Zone
▪ What’s a Girl to Do
▪ Off the Wheel 🏅