4/5
Say A Little Prayer
It's only been a fortnight since 'Forever Is A Feeling' by Julien Baker's Boygenius bandmate and girlfriend Lucy Dacus came out. Not to mention, just over a year since 'The Record' of their supergroup was released. Yet Julien Baker already has another album out. Does that mean we're due a follow-up to Phoebe Bridgers' 'The Punisher'? Returning, like Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle in 'Daredevil: Born Again', this week? We sure hope so. Either way, Baker's first LP since the 'Little Oblivions' of 2022 (or the 'genius and their extended play of 'The Rest') is another collaborative affair, like Forrister. As the 'Tokyo' singer (to Bridgers' 'Kyoto') links up with TORRES (Mackenzie Scott) for a classic country album, 'Send A Prayer My Way' and Scott's first since last year's 'What An Enormous Room'.
And it's only going to get bigger with this delightful dirty dozen tracks on an orange and black and white album with artwork and typography that could ride a crazy horse, like Neil Young. He, of course, also has a new album out this New Music Friday. When doesn't he, and when wouldn't we listen? Yet for your NPR, this is the album of the week and maybe month, as lover to lover Baker and Dacus go head-to-head, or instead, haters looking to pit everything and everyone against each other, side-by-side. Just like the recently released members of BLACKPINK, Jennie, Lisa and Rose celebrating each other's wins at Coachella. It's only maddening masculinity that makes all this a toxic competition. Instead, Julien bakes up another perfect group project. Barrelling through this wild west in black and white like the freight train of Young's 'Coastal' live soundtrack to his wife's Daryl Hannah directed documentary of the same name. With the Stetsons to match.
This Matador alternative album, produced in part by the pair and Sarah Tudzin, comes almost a decade after the pair performed together at the Lincoln Hall in Chicago, Illinois. A couple of years later, texts were sent about possibly making this a country thing, before more tours saw TORRES open for Julien and then rock some songs together. It all became official for everyone to hear at the Big Ears Festival. Then there really was 'Sugar In The Tank', like the lead single, as our prayers were answered. This January, the sweet 'Sylvia' accompanied the album announcement. And now we have singles like my favourite 'Tuesday', the 'Dirt' of this long, open road opener and the 'Bottom Of A Bottle' you might find at a roadside bar. This LP hits, all the way to the 'Goodbye Baby' farewell that has Mackenzie and Julien talking about preservatives the way amazing actor (and the wizard himself) Jeff Goldblum talked about the benefits of buttering your toast (I promise you, it's no innuendo), by leaving it out overnight (I promise) with Sarah Silverman on his own album of jazz styling.
Tune this into your car radio, like 'The Only Marble I've Got Left'. You'll lose yours over all of this. This is your "steady companion" until the 'Tape Runs Out'. No matter if it's all going 'Downhill Both Ways'. On 'No Desert Flower', TORRES yearns "You said, "You wouldn't move so I moved you"/I'm not bruised, but I'm confused/I mistook your fear for rage/You couldn't wait to get away/From me." Whereas on 'Off The Wagon', Baker broods "Drivin' the block to put off getting home/It's a whole lot of work to get a little bit stoned/I'm threading the needle, changing the dose/'Til I'm immune to the cure/When you have not a thing else left to look forward to/Outside of hitting the road/And burning one after your shift at the restaurant/Getting a ride to the show." Not afraid in this day and age of shame to show the vulnerabilities, some may see as weaknesses, but really remain strengths. It all comes together on the 'Showdown' of singing, "Fireworks are goin' off all night around my house/And I can't find a single thing to be happy about/Everything I begged of you comes bouncing off the clouds/Now I just hear my own voice saying "Help me" twice as loud." Courage in the struggle. They said they should make a country album together, and you know what? They did. This is their way. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Sylvia', 'Tuesday', 'Goodbye Baby'.
Spin This: Boygenius - 'The Record'.
Julien Baker - 'Turn Out The Lights'
TORRES - 'Three Futures'
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