With their debut EP, boygenius had joined forces and demonstrated to the world that they were truly among the most promising authors of American songwriting. Six songs that demonstrated an enviable harmony and affirmed a common musical and lyrical vision. It was 2018 and since then Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers have released several singles and at least one LP each, managing in the case of Baker and Bridgers' latest monumental albums to surpass what they had done up to that point.
On the occasion of their recent reunion live – and while waiting for a new official collaboration in the studio on behalf of the supergroup – let's retrace together the solo careers of the three singer-songwriters in chronological order, but with some concessions, from their beginnings to their last full-length released in the middle of the pandemic period. These are three different artistic-musical paths that are independent of each other, but which show numerous points of tangency. And the idea behind this new one playlist of our column “Last night a Mixtape saved my life” is precisely to highlight differences and convergences in the writing of the three friends and, above all, their musical evolution over the years.
We therefore find Julien's intense ballads with a strong spiritual value and the pain-soaked ones of Phoebe's “Stranger In The Alps”, the more adrenaline-pumping guitars of Dacus's debut and the stinging crescendos that characterize his subsequent masterpieces, “Night Shift” and “Nonbeliever”. But we not only listen to the classics of their repertoire, but also some lesser-known singles. This is the case of “Tokyo” which was a prelude to sound great of “Little Oblivions”, but also of the amused and complete reworking that Dacus does of “La Vie En Rose”.
We then briefly delve into sea magnum of the collaborations that Phoebe has had a hand in. I selected a song written with another of the important voices of American indie-rock singer-songwriter, Matt Berninger, and the inevitable “Dylan Thomas”, reminiscent of Wilco from the Tweedy-Bennett era and taken from the album that Bridgers recorded together with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. And then there is Phoebe's presence in practically half of “Solar Power” for the vocal harmonies which seems to definitively establish the success of the musician, now here in dialogue with one of the most influential pop stars of the last decade. Finally, his most successful exercise in rereading the traditional Christmas repertoire could not be missing, that “If We Make It Through December” stolen from Merle Haggard's songbook.
The discographies of the three boygenius are already dotted with memorable songs. But going back to the words with which I concluded the review of “Home Video” a few months ago, the impression is that, perhaps, the best is yet to come. At least that's what the three majestic and powerful final pieces of their latest collections suggest. And while waiting to find out what Julien, Lucy and Phoebe have in store for us in the future, these are certainly twenty-two songs to get lost in, to rejoice or regret and to fall madly in love with. Happy listening!
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
