If you’re a person with impeccable music taste — or you own more than one pair of Doc Martens — then you’ve probably heard of the band Boygenius (stylized as “boygenius”). The indie-rock group is comprised of super-talents such as Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker, and their music fits in perfectly with any “sad-girl” playlist you’d play during these grey months. But, if you have yet to experience the genius of Boygenius (see what I did there?), I suggest you take a quick listen to “Stay Down” and come back to this piece. I’ll be waiting.
Boygenius first broke onto the music scene in 2018 with their self-titled EP boygenius. The group initially started out as fans of each other’s work, but snowballed into a full-blown collaboration with their most popular song, “Souvenir,” amassing over 37 million plays on Spotify. And now, on Jan. 18, Boygenius finally released new music — and an album announcement. Excuse me while I scream for a moment.
The members of the band each took to Instagram, posting a photo of the album cover and captioning it, “the record is out march 31 and three songs are out now. xboygeniusx.com”. The posts are garnering hundreds of thousands of likes, and a sea of comments to match. Safe to say, this is a win for the hot and sad people in the room — myself included.
Can March 31st come any sooner? I’ve already played these three songs like, 200 times each at this point.
Wait, Who is in Boygenius?
As I mentioned before, Boygenius is comprised of three musicians: Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. If you didn’t already know, Bridgers is an indie musician who has collaborated with the likes of Taylor Swift, Kid Cudi, and (most recently) SZA. Before her skyrocket to mainstream fame, Bridgers had a close friendship with Julien Baker: a musician from Memphis, Tennesee. In an interview with GQ, Baker revealed that she met Bridgers in a show in Eagle Rock, California — and the two were absolutely fangirling over each other.
“I had been a fan of her music through the internet, but she seemed very intimidatingly cool,” Baker told GQ. “We ran into each other and we literally just said, ‘Dude,’ to each other ten times in a row and then bro’d out in the dressing room.”
Dacus, however, met Baker before Bridgers at a show in DC. Their friendship instantly blossomed, and Baker introduced Dacus to Bridgers in 2017. Dacus, a popular musician herself, has over 1.9 monthly listeners on Spotify and has regularly appeared with Bridgers for performances — especially that star-packed Ally Coalition Talent Show that happened in December.
Until March 31, you can catch me watching their performances on loop, learning every word to their three new songs, and crying into my pillow. I call it: self-care.