Following in the footsteps of The Michigan Daily Arts’ Music Talks, The Daily Arts section presents Arts Talks, a series where Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss their opinions on and reactions to the latest and major releases in the Arts world.
In this segment of Arts Talks, some Daily Arts writers come together to discuss the record, the latest album from boygenius, a band composed of musicians Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
Lillian Pearce, Daily Arts Writer: I’ll start: I love boygenius. But, the more I listened to their EP, I noticed that each song screamed a particular artist; “Me & My Dog” is a Phoebe Bridgers song through and through, and “Souvenir” has Julien Baker written all over it. It made me wonder what exactly was the boygenius sound. the record, though, feels like a collaboration, and I am really happy about that.
Lola D’Onofrio, Daily Arts Writer: Yeah, that’s true. the record has a really different sound compared to their EP. It’s very rocky, very heavy. Past songs like “Me & My Dog” and “Salt in the Wound” have crunch and noise to them, but the record feels a lot gentler and more cohesive.
Annabel Curran, Senior Arts Editor: I haven’t listened to their EP that much. I’m familiar with it a little bit, but I didn’t listen to it when it first came out. So the record was actually my introduction to boygenius. It’s cool to hear all of their different styles creep in. It is easy to pick out who did what, I think, but it all blends together really well. I’m obsessed with this album. I don’t think there’s a song I don’t like.
Serena Irani, TV Beat Editor: I’ve only listened to it a few times. But right now, I’m kind of ambivalent. I like a lot of the songs — I think my favorite song is “Letter To An Old Poet” because it sounds like “Me & My Dog” part two — but some of them I’m just not there yet with. I agree that their sounds coalesce a lot better on this album; however, sometimes I feel like I’m bouncing around from artist to artist. Maybe that’ll change when I listen to it a few more times.
Zachary Taglia, Daily Arts Writer: This album definitely does feel a lot less rocky. I think Julien Baker has the rockiest cuts, but I like the softer cuts more, honestly. I liked “Emily I’m Sorry” a lot when it came out. I also like “We’re In Love” a lot — I thought the songwriting was so good on that track. I am sad that we don’t hear much of Lucy Dacus on this album.
AC: Me too. The songs that do have a heavy Lucy Dacus presence are my favorites, like “Not Strong Enough.” Her verse is my favorite part. I wish she could sing me to sleep every day. Her voice is just so clear, and her harmonies are always so, so good.
ZT: I think her songwriting is so fleshed out, whereas when I hear the typical Phoebe Bridgers motifs, I’m exhausted. I’m tired.
AC: I totally agree. There’s one song — what’s the song where she’s like, “But you’re not special, you’re evil”? Is that “Letters To An Old Poet”? I was like, Phoebe, what are these words? It was silly. But in the second half of the song, when she says “I wanna be happy / I’m ready,” that hurts so bad. That was so good.
Claire Sudol, Music Beat Editor: The lyric “You think you’re a good person / Because you won’t punch me in the stomach” honestly stopped me in my tracks — it was so bizarre. But I think the absurdity and sometimes over-dramatic flair of Phoebe’s tracks are the key to her charm.
LP: Serena mentioned earlier that “Letter To An Old Poet” sounds like “Me & My Dog.” Similarly, I was thinking about how the song “$20” references “Souvenir” from their EP, when Julien Baker sings, “$20 in souvenirs,” and the other nods to their old work together, which I think is cute.
LD: In “Letter To An Old Poet,” they redo the “Me & My Dog” riff but instead of “I want to be emaciated,” it’s “I wanna be happy.” It’s very soft. I feel like that’s kind of the mission statement of the album — the EP was very harsh and self-deprecating, and the record is more mature and reflective.
LP: I definitely agree with that. At the end of “Souvenir,” there’s the lyric that I love (but is very self-deprecating), “When you cut a hole into my skull / Do you hate what you see? / Like I do.” the record, on the other hand, seems to be about giving themselves more grace, being more mature about their pain instead of blaming themselves for everything.
LD: That being said, I’m curious what all your opinions are because I’ve struggled to find, like, a core theme. the record feels pretty disjointed and I’m wondering, what was their overall vision?
AC: I think that’s a fair question. Thinking about Phoebe’s two albums, and Lucy’s discography as well, there’s a lot of storytelling. I think it was Stranger in the Alps where Phoebe said that she wrote about what human beings can do to hurt other human beings. Like she has “Chelsea” on there and “You Missed My Heart.” But on the record? I don’t know if there was one central theme. I think there’s a subtle shift in tone from their EP for sure — just like Lillian said, they’re giving themselves more grace. But I don’t know if there was a big idea.
LD: Part of the issue of it is that they’re three different artists. They’re not one hive mind. Maybe the point is for it to be disjointed and highlight their different perspectives and experiences.
LP: When they released the first three singles, I thought, “Oh, here’s my Julien song, my Phoebe song, my Lucy song.” But when I watched “boygenius – the film,” I was like, “Oh, I think they are all aware of that.”
AC: On that same thread, though, I did notice how the songs subtly connected to each other. I don’t know if this was intentional, but they did reuse a couple of lines throughout the album. Like, they mention “spinning out” repeatedly. I think it’s in “Not Strong Enough” where Phoebe sings “I tried, I can’t / Stop staring at the ceiling fan and / Spinning out.” And then later in “True Blue,” Lucy sings, “When you moved to Chicago / You were spinning out.” It all comes back together.
CS: Maybe then the throughline is in showing the places they find themselves in now as opposed to the EP. The act of calling back to old tracks and phrases made me think that the record is all about their maturation as individuals and as a collective. Not only are they seemingly more mature in life and love, but also in their collective songwriting and production.
ZT: I have to say, like, you know, this album is good, but I find myself enjoying their individual records a lot more. They just go way more in-depth in their personal work; Lucy’s Home Video, for example, is full of stories from her childhood and relationships. the record seems like they just tried to satisfy the public.
AC: They’re all such storytellers. I would have loved more of a story because they’re so good at it. Sonically, I’m obsessed with this album. I could listen to it forever. But it would have been nice to get into an actual story.
LP: Have they talked about their process? Like how collaborative is it — do they write lyrics together, music together? Do we know that?
SI: Do you remember when we said earlier, like, “Oh, this is a Julien song?” You can tell almost right away, like “Oh, this specific individual wrote this song.” And, yes, the others are singing, too, and I’m sure they influenced the process, but some songs do feel distinctly like one artist. That’s what makes the album feel disjointed — when they fall out of sync with each other.
LP: I agree, and sometimes it makes me wonder why didn’t they decide to release some songs by themselves? Like, why isn’t “Emily I’m Sorry” a Phoebe Bridgers single? At the same time, there were songs that blended their sounds well, like “Not Strong Enough.”
CS: It’s an almost pass-the-mic of an album and I agree that some tracks might fit better within their individual discographies. I would disagree that it feels disjointed — the record really shines when played from a physical form. Most tracks flow into the following like the transition between “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” — though I think there’s something to be said about the abrupt changes in tone, texture and color in other transitions. There’s also a locked groove on the vinyl format that keeps the album in place on the word “waiting” at the end of “Letter to an Old Poet.” It plays that lyric revolution after revolution, waiting for the listener to pop it out of place into the next track.
LD: Maybe the EP was the way to go. They got to collaborate, to put some songs together. I don’t know if a full-length album was needed. I would have liked to see them be featured on each other’s album, like any other artistic collaboration.
AC: Despite our many critiques, I really do like this album. I will listen to it on the way home just as I listened to it on the way here. And I will continue listening to it until Phoebe releases a new album.
ZT: I probably won’t return to the record. I’d rather listen to their solo music.
LD: Shout out to “Revolution 0” for getting zero mentions during this.
CS: Beatles White Album reference. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Daily Arts Writers Lillian Pearce, Lola D’Onofrio and Zachary Taglia, TV Beat Editor Serena Irani, Music Beat Editor Claire Sudol and Senior Arts Editor Annabel Curran can be reached at pearcel@umich.edu, lolad@umich.edu, ztaglia@umich.edu. seirani@umich.edu, cjsudol@umich.edu and currana@umich.edu.