The supergroup formed by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus has a name that is written with a small initial, but has made a record in capital letters. American song of the 20s at its best
History is full of supergroups, but never like the boygenius. That’s why the very label of supergroup is close to them. They are simply a great band bringing together three brilliant songwriters. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus each contribute her own unique style and share a pass-the-mic-sister spirit. Their first real album will finally be released on Friday The Record (On the contrary, the record) and goes beyond the wildest expectations. His strength lies in the strangeness, in the unpredictability, in the feeling of danger that he occasionally transmits. By joining forces, the three prove to be able to do everything, more.
The record far surpasses the EP that the trio released in 2018. That was the result of the meeting between three indie poets in search of the perfect amalgam. They were all fresh off the release of the album that made them known to the world – Historian for Dacus, Turn Out the Lights for Baker, Stranger in the Alps for Bridgers – and were pleasantly blown away by the result. Perhaps not surprisingly they released their best records after that EP, respectively Home Videos, Little Oblivions And Punisher.
But now they are a real band, with an identity that goes beyond the sum of their three personalities. The disc is built in the old fashioned way, 12 songs in 42 minutes divided between straight songs, oddities and divertissements, good pieces for the air guitar and acoustic whispers. In the lyrics there’s a lot of pissed off, lovesickness, various messes. Like to imagine the characters of the songs with a head full of music and able to transform emotions into sounds. For them, as Baker sings in the formidable Anti Cursefalling in love is like “writing words to the worst love song you’ve ever heard”.
Just a week after posting that disco by Punisher, Bridgers sent a demo tape to the other two asking, “How about going back to being a band?” They worked in great secrecy at the record with co-producer Catherine Marks. They did a month of sessions at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, a nice change from the 2018 EP which they had to do in four days. The result answers Bridgers question with another question: how did the boygenius a Not be a band all this time?
A first taste of the new music arrived in January, in conjunction with the interview of Rolling Stone: three singles written separately by a different author, $20 by Baker, Emily I’m Sorry by Bridgers, True Blue of Dacus. The pieces you haven’t heard yet are the ones where the collaboration is closest. As Baker sings in the deadly incipit of $20that’s a bad idea, so I’m with it.
In Not Strong Enough there is the sonic inventiveness of the three, first a Joni Mitchell guitar, then references to the 80s New Order and a refrain that overturns the meaning of Strong Enough by Sheryl Crow. Revolution 0 (I read the reference to White Albums by The Beatles?) is a mournful ballad by Bridgers about a long-distance relationship and “an imaginary friend, you live in my head”, which leads to the question: “If it ain’t love, then what the fuck is it?”. With his banjo, Cool About It brings together three different stories of encounters between exes gone bad, very bad. “I once took your meds to find out how it is,” Bridgers sings, “now I have to pretend I can’t read your thoughts, I ask how you are and let you lie”.
Lucy Dacus is known for long soliloquies that resemble exorcisms, like Night Shift, Map on a Wall And Triple Dog Dare. Kind of like Leonard Cohen, the inspiration for one of his songs included on the record, he has no problem making songs that last seven minutes. On the album’s highlight We’re in Love he goes through pieces of finished stories, trying to get them to fit together. “One day in October I’ll run out of trash TV and feel lonely, I’ll go to karaoke and sing the song you wrote about me without even reading the lyrics”. These emotions are too intense for karaoke: “I hope no one sings with me.”
In case you haven’t already broken down into tears, it’s finally coming We’re in Lovewhere the singer-songwriter overturns one of Taylor Swift’s most brilliant lyrics: “I could go on and on and on / And I will”, sing the boygenius quoting This Love (It was up 1989). It is the emotional peak of the album. Anti Curse is a piece of a completely different nature, with Baker singing showdown over a guitar and synth backing track somewhere between The Joshua Tree And Since U Been Gone. In the moment of truth, she reminds herself that “you don’t have to make it worse even if you know how to do it.”
The one-two formed by We’re in Love And Anti Curse it’s a fine example of boygenius’ bold rock spirit. In all the record they play by recombining their individual styles to create a different alchemy in each song. That’s why they transcend supergroup clichés. After all, there will be about ten supergroups in total, there are many big bands. And there’s no doubt that boygenius belong to the latter category.
From Rolling Stone US.