Boygenius (CD)

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus formed Boygenius after booking a tour together, but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances and chance encounters that led to friendships - including Bridgers' and Dacus' first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable, and a couple of long email chains - the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms. With gut-wrenchingly personal yet easily relatable verses and spare, lilting melodic arrangements, all three are leading a new rock vanguard that values unflinching self-awareness and unassailable songcraft. Baker's slow builds and taut vocals add urgency to Souvenir and Stay Down, while album opener Bite the Hand roils with slow-burning layers of guitar as Dacus stands in her devastating truth: "I can't love you like you want me to." The Bridgers-architected Me & My Dog chugs into view with a deceptively simple open-road riff and Bridgers' insistent recounting of a relationship that couldn't help but fall apart.

Tracklisting

1) Bite the Hand
2) Me & My Dog
3) Souvenir
4) Stay Down
5) Salt in the Wound
6) Ketchum, ID