Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers are the boys. Literally. For their debut album, they combined their voices and music style to create one of the most genial albums of indie/alternative rock in the scene. The three of them got together back in 2018 when they released their self-entitled EP “boygenius”.
Each of the three singles released belongs to one of them, being: “Emily I’m Sorry” from Phoebe Bridgers, “$20” by Julien Baker, and “True Blue” by the talented Lucy Dacus.
The difference between other supergroups is that Boygenius praises friendship and united influences. They truly like each other and, because of that, their music sound like one cohesive whole. We can clearly see their friendship on the “the record“ cover, where we see three hands with matching tattoos, showing that everyone plays an important part.
The album also intercalates between more upbeat songs and slow ones. The difference between rhythms makes us feel the ups and downs while listening, just like life!
instrumental
We have to talk about the wonderful instrumental part of distorted guitars and drums, which brings a presence to rock songs. However, at the same time the lack of instruments on “Without You Without Them” makes an impactful statement.
In the song “Not Strong Enough” we have a mixture of rock and a bit of folk, being a sample of all the mixture and harmony that Boygenius can give to us.
REFERENCES
From auto allusions to Taylor Swift, the album is full of intentional references that made the fans go crazy. The first big one is on the name of the song “$20“; on their EP, in the song “Souvenir” there is a line that says: “Twenty dollars in souvenirs’’. Crazy, right?
And there’s much more! In the soul-crushing track, “We’re in Love” the phrase “I could go on and on and on and I will’’, is a direct reference to Taylor Swift’s song “This Love”.
Another lyrical reference is in “Not Strong Enough” when Julien says ‘singing ‘Boys Don’t Cry'” as in the song “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure.
An obvious one is the track “Leonard Cohen”, a reference to a Canadian singer-songwriter, singer of the infamous track “Hallelujah”. Cohen was also part of a Buddhist monastery, a fact that explains the lyrics: “at a Buddhist monastery writing horny poetry”.
In “Letter To An Old Poet”, we have two major references. The song is knowingly about Bridgers’ toxic relationship with Ryan Adams. But it also is a reference to the song “Me & My Dog”, the lyric goes “wanna be emaciated, I wanna hear one song without thinking of you”, and in “Letter To An Old Poet” we hear “I wanna be happy I’m ready to walk into my room without looking for you”. If you listen closely, the rhythm of both parts of the songs resembles one another.
“the record” is currently number one in the UK, it has the title of best new music, and scored an 8.2 in Pitchfork. Well, in my honest opinion, the album is pure perfection. The songs, arrangements, lyrics, and everything in it are just a big 10.
If you haven’t listened to it, what are you waiting for? Go for it, you won’t regret it, that’s for sure. And don’t forget to check out Phoebe, Julien, and Lucy‘s solo works, they are true perfection!
The article above was edited by Beatriz Oliveira.
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