The debut album from half of Bitch and Animal, Animal Prufrock, is as intensely schizophrenic as the title. True to form, Animal — who keeps her birth name out of press and artistic releases for personal reasons — has tongue-in-cheek songs like “Emotional Boner” and “Cosmic Tranny” that are as challenging to the hereto-norm as any. But the real kicker on the record is the opener, “Liberation,” which establishes a grungy-dance vibe in the vein of a Mates of State — a sound that is quickly offset by “La Mia Ragazza,” a fierce, slow and dark song half-sung in Italian.

The slow and sincere “Indelible Blue” is a sweet, touching song, made evermore so by the blanket of humor that covers the rest of the album. Never one for straight (or straight-up gay) songwriting, the wild swings from piano ballads like “Getting Into” to synth heavy, simple and repetitive “Mister Fool” is almost an album motif.

Despite the confrontational and challenging nature of queercore, gender-bending song subjects, Animal Prufrock is still just looking for love like the rest of us: On “I Like You” she sings: “I like girls who are freaks and have no place/but I make a place in my arms.” That is the take home point: we all want somebody to love.

(Righteous Babe Records, PO Box 95, Ellicott Station, Buffalo, NY 14205-0095)