4/5
Genius Loves Company.
Boy, 'The Rest' of 'The Record' of the year is here. Supergroup Boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus) delivered on one of the most anticipated albums of the year, featuring the singles '$20', 'Emily I'm Sorry' and 'Not Strong Enough'. So much, so they now have some leftovers for you to be thankful with the holiday season on the horizon. Following their self-titled EP with another four-track. Here's 'The Rest' for a band that doesn't seem to take a break. Haunting our headphones like the by the sea, beach life album artwork without the flash. Inspiring iconic status once more.
A dozen, delightful minutes will take you the rest of the way with Dacus remarking that this fantastic four from the big-three "all have this spacey, eerie quality about them". Much like the powerful portrait photographed for the original album artwork that will now serve as another classic cover for the record as you take the sunflower yellow vinyl out of its dust jacket. The perfect album accompaniment takes your midnight oil burning hour away with the slow fade of a big 'Black Hole'. All as Baker laments, "In a rainstorm/Suckin' down a dart on the back porch/Out here, it gets so dark/You can see the stars, the ones/The headlines said this morning/We're bein' spat out by what we thought/Was just destroyin' everything for good." With her sisters singing along in beautiful, brooding backing.
'Afraid Of Heights', Dacus isn't scared to take the lead on the next track for an extended play that shows us all the group's individual talents as well as their collective harmony. "I never rode a motorcycle/I've never smoked a cigarette/I wanna live a vibrant life/But I wanna die a boring death/I know I was a disappointment/Know you wanted me to take a risk/Not everybody gets the chance to live/A life that isn't dangerous", she sings like someone who has failed a 'Sons Of Anarchy' audition. Sure, her protagonist in this song is no daredevil, but even a blind superhero can see and feel that she dares to love for real. Absolutely one of the most courageous things you can do in this life.
Forming like Voltron on the Jenny Lewis like 'Voyager' is when the real genius sets sail. All as you remember that New Music '23 started with a big, subtle and beautiful, acoustic and atmospheric bang. "It's a hundred and three in the Valley/Blacktop is meltin' on our shoes (Mmm)/And I don't mean to make it all about me (Mmm)/But I used to believe no one could love you like I do (Mmm)/And I'm startin' to think that it might be impossible not to (Mmm)." Mmm, Mmm these harmonies are tight (*chef's kiss*) as you walk alone in your Californian city feeling like R.E.M., Jim Carrey, or Andrew Kaufman himself in a wrestling match. Phoebe's punishing 'powers' take us home as Boy forms all for one again. "How did it start? Did I fall into a nuclear reactor?/Crawl out with acid skin or somethin' worse/A hostile alien ambassador?/Or am I simply another of the universe's failed experiments?/Either way, I have been wonderin' just how it is (How it is)/I have never heard (Never heard) the tale of how I got my powers", the origin story for you superheroes in a track that is cinema like Scorsese, killing your flower moon. As you take rest, this EP is the perfect set to let you fall adrift on memory bliss. Nuanced and profound, "the tail of the comet" of this year, "may have burned up in an instant", but this is another record that you can be proud of like smart students of music that have mastered their signature sound. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Black Hole', 'Afraid Of Heights', 'Voyager'.
No comments:
Post a Comment