Why can a man feel so confident while a woman is held back by her insecurities? It was out of exasperation with this disparity so common in the music industry that Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus called their supergroup boygenius. And you know what ? Together, they are stronger than anything.
The female trio is therefore releasing a first full album, but we can say that boygenius has been creating a cult following for a few years now, at least among its fervent audience.
By agreeing in 2018 to release an EP, with a nod to a Crosby, Stills & Nash cover, the gesture was of course more than mere irony. There was a feminist frustration, and a desire to create music to better understand each other, which spoke to a lot of music lovers.
Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus release their first great album in a completely different context. Each has grown in popularity, even Grammy nominee Phoebe Bridgers (in addition to collaborating with Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney), so much so that she and her pals made the front page of the magazine last January. RollingStone with a nod this time to a photo of Nirvana.
On the night of Thursday to Friday, they released a medium-length film directed by Kristen Stewart. It is also with a woman that they co-directed the recordor Catherine Marks (known for her work with PJ Harvey).
As much as the composition of the texts is solid, as much a moving vulnerability of insurance emanates from the songs. In satanist, pure grunge-pop delight nineties, Julien Baker recounts his anger at having grown up in a religious environment that stifled his homosexuality. Will you be an anarchist with me?/Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie, she sings.
When you don’t know who you are/You fuck around and find out, for her part launches Lucy Dacus on TrueBlue.
The vocal harmonies and refrains of Cool About It bring Simon & Garfunkel up to date, while the melody of Not Strong Enough is one of those that passes over you like a train.
Each of the three singer-songwriters takes the microphone with her touch magnified by her peers. More raging pieces (Anti Curse) rub shoulders with refined ballads dominated by voices (Letter to An Old Poet).
Lucy Dacus quote Leonard Cohen, while Phoebe Bridgers makes explicit reference to Montreal on Emily I’m Sorry, one of the three excerpts unveiled at the beginning of the year which relates the feeling of losing oneself in a romantic relationship.
If there is one thing that the members of boygenius want to emphasize, it is not to deny our deep nature. And cherish our friendships.
Together, that’s all.
indie-rock
the record
boygenius
Universal