You Need to Know: Diamond Rings' Androgynous Synth-Pop Perfection
Tight leather pants, guyliner, bleached hair and Klaus Nomi-styled shoulder pads that could poke your eye out. This is how Diamond Rings—a.k.a., John O'Regan—presents himself to the world in the first video from his upcoming Free Dimensional album, "I’m Just Me."
His retro-futurist outfit reflects not only his sound but the upward trajectory of his career. His homemade YouTube clips for Diamond Rings' first few songs showed the glam rock scribe rocking oversized denim and tights while leading charmingly slipshod dance routines in alleyways. The "I'm Just Me" video, on the other hand, reveals that O'Regan finally has some industry heft behind his talent. Not only does he have Damian Taylor (of Björk, Killers & Robyn fame) producing this new jam, but he's changed clothes from androgynous thrift-store finds to gender-bending David Bowie duds.
But why should you care? Well, even if you're not smitten by the ice-cool androgyny of this admitted jock who isn't afraid to prance around in skin tight glam pants, Diamonds Rings is a rarity in the pop music landscape: a synth-pop singer-songwriter. There aren't too many people who bother writing confessional-yet-dancefloor ready pop gems, and even fewer who can successfully straddle that line between self-expression and libidinous hip-shaking.
Just take a listen to "I'm Just Me" below. And if you missed him the first time around, do your ears a favor and check out the inescapably melodic "All Yr Songs" beneath that.
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