Photos by Ali Meizels. boygenius released their first album, “the record,” on March 31, five years after their debut EP.
By Ali Meizels ’23 and Emma Watkins ’23
Publisher & Photos Editor | Managing Editor of Content
boygenius — the acclaimed supergroup made up of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — released their first full-length album, “the record,” on March 31, 2023. The album comes five years after the group’s self-titled EP, released in 2018. boygenius reunited in 2020 amid the solo success of each of the members. Bridgers told Rolling Stone that she sent Baker and Dacus an early version of a new song and expressed her desire to make music together again following the release of her album “Punisher.” The trio, all of whom are queer women, are unabashedly supportive of each other. It is clear from any interview or photo of the three that they share an incredibly close friendship, which they attribute to their shared experiences as touring musicians. The band, often pigeonholed into “Sad Girl Indie” genres, rejects those labels. In an episode of the podcast The Pitchfork Review, boygenius questioned why the emotionality of women artists is so often consolidated to sadness. “the record” explores that vast emotionality in dynamic and exciting ways, rendering labels unnecessary.
“the record” opens with a folksy a capella ballad, “Without You Without Them.” Baker, Bridgers and Dacus harmonize, “I want to hear your story / and be a part of it,” poignantly introducing their matured friendship and group dynamic. “Speak to me / until your history’s / no mystery to me,” the trio sings, seemingly asking each other for complete honesty and transparency. At times, “the record” seems almost too personal, acting as a vulnerable window into their relationships with one another. The stripped-back a capella vocals also add to the feeling of vulnerability. The refrain of “I want to hear your story / and be a part of it” ushers in the album with ideas of storytelling and reciprocal sharing of lives.
The next three songs on “the record,” “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue,” are the three singles that the group released ahead of the album. boygenius released this set of songs on Jan. 18, along with the announcement of the forthcoming album. Each of these three songs features one of the group members on lead vocals, with the other two providing backing and harmonies. “$20,” led by Baker, is a fast-paced, guitar-focused tune, incorporating what Baker dreams of for the band: “more sick riffs.”
“True Blue,” with Dacus on lead vocals, is driven by a steady drumbeat and straightforward vocals. “Emily I’m Sorry,” sung by Bridgers, is a slow and mellow meditation on a relationship gone wrong. Together, the three songs showcase the unique style and vocals of the three artists while also exhibiting the magic created when they collaborate, especially seen in the hauntingly beautiful harmonies on “Emily I’m Sorry” as they sing, “Emily, I’m sorry, I just / Make it up as I go along / Yet, I can feel myself becoming / Someone only you could want.” “Emily I’m Sorry” incorporates the first of several references on “the record” to other boygenius lyrics. At the end of the song, Bridgers sings, “I’m 27 and I don’t know who I am / but I know what I want,” seemingly in conversation with her own 2020 song “ICU,” where she sings, “I don't know what I want / Until I fuck it up.” This self-referential lyrical flip is a nod to long-time listeners.
The trio of singles is also the foundation of a short film directed by Kristen Stewart released alongside “the record.” Simply titled “the film,” it features monster trucks, an excess of blue paint and Dacus kissing Baker and Bridgers.
“Cool About It,” the next song on the album, is something of a return to the style of the boygenius EP, wherein each member sings a verse within the song. “Cool About It” is an homage to Paul Simon, and the melody closely mimics that of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.” Baker opens the song with quietly powerful vocals, which Dacus follows with an equally gentle verse. Lyrics like “I remember it’s impossible to pass your test” build up feelings of uncertainty and insecurity in what is seemingly a relationship gone bad. Bridgers closes the tune, subtly changing the energy of the entire song. As she sings, “once I took your medication to know what it’s like / and now I have to act like I can’t read your mind,” the tone shifts and becomes more overtly somber. The song ends abruptly, with no outro after boygenius harmonizes, “telling you it’s nice to see how good you’re doing / even though we know it isn’t true.”
The sixth song on “the record,” “Not Strong Enough,” was also released as a single ahead of the album. boygenius released it on March 1, along with an accompanying music video comprised of phone videos of the three friends edited by Bridgers’ brother Jackson Bridgers. “Not Strong Enough” is another song featuring a rotating lead vocalist. Bridgers begins with strong and confident vocals and Baker tags in for the second verse and chorus. Dacus starts the bridge off singing alone, and as she repeats, “always an angel / never a god,” her bandmates join in until the bridge crescendos into a powerful final chorus led by Dacus. Here Dacus incorporates her own self-reference, belting, “I don’t know why I am / the way I am / there’s something in the static / I think I’ve been having revelations.” Dacus fans will recognize the parallel to her 2021 song VBS, where she sings, “You were waiting for a revelation of your own.”
“Revolution 0” is led by Bridgers singing and humming over a delicate, mostly acoustic instrumental backing. The first half of “Revolution 0” sounds like much of Bridgers’ solo repertoire, with her signature biting-yet-resigned lyrics and clear, melancholy tone singing, “If it isn’t love / Then what the fuck is it? / I guess just let me pretend.” One of the song’s most subtly emotional lines comes when Bridgers muses, “Wish I wasn’t so tired, but I’m tired.” Just over halfway through the song, Dacus and Baker join in a chorus of wordless vocalizing as strings rise in the background. The volume of the song fades as Bridgers sings, “I used to think if I / just closed my eyes / I’d disappear,” and then surges to its full sound once more before closing on a string-filled outro.
“Leonard Cohen,” featuring Dacus as the lead vocalist, is a narrative about a drive that boygenius went on in 2021 in which Bridgers insisted on a singular focus on the song she was playing and made them miss an exit. The flippancy with which the song treats the late Canadian singer-songwriter is disarming, and comes across as confident at best and brash at worst. The discourse surrounding the song stems from a lyric halfway through, where boygenius sings, “Leonard Cohen once said / there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in / and I am not an old man having an existential crisis / at a Buddhist monastery / writing horny poetry / but I agree.” This lyric feels like a perhaps misguided dig at Cohen, writing off his lyricism as ‘existential crisis’ and ‘horny poetry,’ although supporters have argued that it is an example of the group’s rejection of music culture’s worship of male artists. The witty nature of “Leonard Cohen” ultimately works to turn the reference into a lighthearted joke rather than a serious critique. Beyond its controversy, the song moves quickly and features several stand-out lines that get at the nuance of the trio’s friendship. “I might like you less / now that you know me so well” and “I never thought you’d happen to me” highlight with stunning clarity the contradictions inherent in love. ”
“Satanist” opens with Baker asking, “Will you be a Satanist with me?” She pulls off a tongue-in-cheek verse referencing a mortgaged soul and off-brand ecstasy. Bridgers enters asking, “Will you be an anarchist with me? / Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie.” Dacus’ verse opens with her asking, “Will you be a nihilist with me?” She playfully adds, “If nothing matters / man, that’s a relief,” expressing contentment in a moment that might otherwise read as pessimistic. Dacus adds a nod to a religious upbringing that often appears in her music, singing, “Solomon had a point when he wrote Ecclesiastes / If nothing can be known, then stupidity is holy.” Following the three verses, “Satanist” transitions with a trippy fade-out distorted sound into soft strumming, as boygenius sings together and closes the song.
“We’re in Love” is one of the longest songs on “the record” and is sung almost entirely by Dacus. “You could absolutely break my heart / that’s how I know that we’re in love,” she begins, opening what is essentially a love letter to her bandmates. Baker has admitted that she vetoed the song at first, uncomfortable with such a bold admission of the vulnerability of friendship, but changed her mind with time. Dacus thoughtfully imagines a future in which she has lost touch with her friends, going instead to karaoke alone. “Damn, that makes me sad,” she confesses, “it doesn’t have to be like that / If you rewrite your life, may I still play a part?” Dacus asks her friends if they will find her in their next life, singing, “there is something about you / that I will always recognize.” The rest of boygenius joins her in listing what they would tell one another if they had to remind them of their past life together. The effect is a moving tribute to their shared history.
The penultimate song on “the record,” “Anti-Curse,” is led by Baker, as she sings poignantly about a near-drowning incident she experienced while at a beach with Bridgers and Dacus. This song also includes a subtle nod to a song off the boygenius EP, “Salt in the Wound,” as Baker intones, “Salt in my lungs / holding my breath / making peace with my inevitable death.”
Fans of Baker are familiar with the duality between her more pensive, reflective voice and her powerful belt, which she wields with impressive control in many of her solo songs. “Anti-Curse” is the only place on “the record” where Baker releases her full vocal power, and the effect is breathtaking. After two minutes of reflection on her near-death experience, she belts, “I’m swimming back,” accompanied by swelling drums.
“Letter To An Old Poet” is the closing song on the album, musing on a seemingly toxic past relationship and the process of moving on. With devastating leading vocals, Bridgers sings, “I said I think that you’re special / you told me once that I’m selfish,” and later goes on to tellingly change the line to “You’re not special, you’re evil.”
“The record” is an impressively cohesive body of work, but it particularly shines on songs featuring each member equally: “Cool About It,” “Not Strong Enough” and “Satanist” are the album’s highlights, where Baker, Bridgers and Dacus trade off on lead vocals. Perhaps the reason why the single-vocalist songs feel less fulfilling is the fact that boygenius frequently appear on each others’ solo works — Baker and Dacus are credited with backing vocals on Bridgers’ “Graceland Too,” Dacus’s “Please Stay” features Baker and Bridgers and Baker’s “Favor” is backed by Bridgers and Dacus. Since listeners get to hear the harmonies of boygenius within the members’ solo work, it feels less special in the context of “the record.” Regardless, “the record” is a remarkable full-length debut that skillfully walks the line between cynical and hopeful and fully showcases the vocal range of each singer.
Throughout “the record,” the group plays with lyrical callbacks to their previous EP. At the bridge of “Letter to An Old Poet,” the song shifts to parallel “Me & My Dog” from the 2018 EP. One of boygenius’s most well-known lyrics comes toward the end of “Me & My Dog,” when Bridgers leads the group in singing “I wanna be emaciated / I wanna hear one song without thinking of you / I wish I was on a spaceship / just me and my dog and an impossible view.” On “Letter To An Old Poet,” the voices of boygenius — five years more mature — flip these lines into “I wanna be happy / I’m ready to walk into my room without looking for you / I’ll go up to the top of our building / and remember my dog when I see the full moon.” In an especially moving parallel, the ending lyrics of “Me & My Dog” and “Anti-Curse” also reflect each other. In 2018, boygenius sings, “I dream about it / and I wake up falling.” In 2023, they sing, “I can’t feel it yet / but I am waiting.”
This change, perhaps above all, reflects the evolution of boygenius, defined by an exploration of hopefulness. Addressing the concept of hope in a 2018 interview with Rebecca Haithcoat for Vice, the interviewer stated to Dacus, “You said hope is woven throughout [your sophomore album, “Historian”], which is pretty different.” Dacus replied, “Maybe for most people but I think that’s the only thing I ever write about. Reaching for it. It’s not always with confidence. It’s like occasionally with crossed fingers. A lot of shrugging and a loosened grip.”