The Record: Boygenius’s Upcoming Full Length Debut

Written by Zoe Tevyaw

Boygenius is finally back after four years and gearing up for the release of their first full length album the record on March 31st! As the brainchild of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, the supergroup combines the three artists’ unique and enthralling voices in songs covering a wide array of emotional topics both individual and shared between the three. Taking the best aspects of each of their solo careers, boygenius tackles the grungy indie rock genre with the heart and feel of singer-songwriters and has given listeners songs they can dance and cry to.

In 2018, the three women were booked on a triple headlining bill, thinking that they might go into the studio to write one song together for promotional purposes. Four days later, boygenius emerged with a 6-track self-titled EP. Bridgers, Dacus, and Baker all share a history gigging with one another, occupying similar circles. They brought that energy of their bond into the recording sessions, each tasked with bringing one complete and one incomplete song for what would turn into boygenius the EP. The project has a lot of rough edges and human relationship-centric themes that translate well to the organic nature of their coming together.

Bridgers, whose name became propelled to mainstream recognition with the release of her 2020 sophomore album Punisher, is known for her bedroom pop despair and “serial collaborations” with a number of artists, including Taylor Swift for whom she’s set to open on tour (other collabees include Maggie Rogers, The 1975, Fiona Apple, Kid Cudi, and SZA). With constrained intensity and muted relatability, Bridgers is known for her poignant songwriting and the unique character of her voice and sound, often regaled for her words. In an all-telling article with Rolling Stone written for the release of the record, she is described as “the soul” of the group, providing that hauntingly beautiful quality listeners can hear in Punisher (2020) and Stranger in the Alps (2017).

“The heart” – as described by Rolling Stone – Julien Baker offers a raw potency that her bandmates might shy away from in projects outside of boygenius. Guitar-driven and vocally powerful, Baker explores deeply personal ideas in her lyrics that are almost so specific to her that they return to relatability. Like Bridgers, she also has a long roster of artists she’s collaborated with or supported on tour including (but not limited to!) Paramore, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Front Bottoms. Her 2017 album Turn Out The Lights saw the incredibly emotionally-charged track “Appointments,” a vast harmonic landscape with a heart wrenching belt and ambient backing, gain wider popularity and secure her place as a pillar of her genre. The essence extracted from “Appointments” can be found weaved throughout the boygenius tracks, Baker providing a chilling upper register and distortion that gives the group an extra layer of jagged edges.

Lucy Dacus, as “the brain” of boygenius, has a unique eloquence and well-spoken worldview with a personal sound somewhere between Bridgers’ softness and Baker’s grit with the capacity for gut punches over high and low energy tracks alike. Complete with a buttery lower register conveying her winding paths of explorative lyricism, Dacus tracks feel like excerpts from a memoir, combining flowery language with straight-through-the-heart subject matter. Her three full length releases have all received critical acclaim, with 2021’s Home Video the latest iteration giving listeners a look into what seems to be her mind’s inner-workings and feelings. For the boygenius crew, Dacus shines through in witty earnestness and cleverly quotable lines carried over from the intuition of her solo work. 

Together, these three women truly do make a “supergroup” with boygenius, and an intentional emphasis placed on denouncing the designated space women occupy in both the indie rock music scene and the wider music industry. In their Rolling Stone interview, Baker addresses this as them wanting “to be able to make a sick song and have that not be weighted because of all these extraneous identifiers that we work within.” Their subversion can also be seen front and center on the artwork of the boygenius EP where the three are posed like Crosby, Stills & Nash. The spirit of the group is in this statement of equality, helped by the lack of a “frontwoman” amongst the three – each member sings lead on different songs while the group remains a cohesive unit. 

In preparation for the record, boygenius has released 3 singles off the album. “$20,” written primarily by Baker, calls back to the song “Souvenir” off the EP which features a line “$20 and a souvenir” in a bouncy, punk-influenced manner. The call-and-response playing between all three sets of vocals begins fun-filled and grows into screaming belts by the end that perfectly encapsulate the boygenius bond. “True Blue,” a Dacus-coded track, has a more laid back groove and themes that line up nicely against Home Video. With signature three-part harmony, it's a song that invites both head bobbing and deeper looks. The third  single “Emily I’m Sorry” is a Phoebe-led relationship-regret song reminiscent of Punisher, with the added texture and support of harmonies from Dacus and Baker.

The three chosen releases provide a good sense of what each of the womens’ voices and character will bring to the record both when featured, as they all are on one of the three singles, and when supporting. So evident are the sounds brought together from each of their solo careers in neat cohesion with their own influences on one another. With references to each other’s music and lines about their friendship thrown into the mix, it's easy to tell how close the boygenius members are. As they actively try to dismantle musical misogyny both blatant and subtle, the women are first and foremost creating a safe space amongst themselves and their team of mostly women to let the creativity flow – a rock-solid foundation that can be felt and heard in the songs.

Boygenius are heading out on a summer tour as part of the re:SET Concert series designed to reinvent the typical festival and concert-going experience in favor of relieving artist and fan stress alike. Tickets are available on the boygenius website.