‘the record’ is a life-changing album

By Bojana Cvijic ASSOCIATE EDITOR

American indie rock supergroup boygenius released their debut album, “the record” on Friday, which celebrates the imperfections and intimacies of life, love and friendship.

Made up of indie singers Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, the band was formed by accident, according to an Oct. 31, 2018 Vogue article.

They were fans of each other’s work and commiserate in constantly being referred to as “women in rock” even though their respective sounds were all different.

In this closeness, they selfproduced and recorded their selftitled EP in 2018, a process which was carefully curated by the members.

The EP exclusively worked with women and collectively brought their own individual ideas together to work as a group.

The album opens with “Without You Without Them,” a song that sounds stripped bare as Bridgers, Dacus and Baker all harmonize about history, generational lineage and love which has shaped the people they’ve become.

I chose to listen to the album in the break room of my job before the store opened and the opening line to this song hit me like a ton of bricks.

“I want to hear your story/ And be a part of it/ Thank your father before you/ His mother before him/ Who would I be without you, without them?”

I started to instantly cry and think of not only myself and the people before me who shaped me into who I am, but the people in my life and those who became before them.

How have we all come together in love and friendship? And without that, who would we be without them?

I knew I was in for an emotional ride where I would be coming to terms with a lot of my own personal dealings in my life.

This, however, is not new whenever I listen to boygenius or their own respective individual works.

Bridgers, Dacus and Baker are all part of the LGBTQ+ community and have helped me grow in my own identity as a queer woman and also through the trials and tribulations of navigating not only romantic relationships, but various stages of my life.

This is not to say that this is their responsibility nor their job to do, an artist’s work is their own and something deeply personal to them, which is why I take umbrage to the fact their music is diminished as just “sad girl music.”

“the record” is deeply empowering and takes responsibility for their own respective actions in when members of this group have – to put it bluntly – fucked up.

In “Emily I’m Sorry,” Bridgers writes a song about a failed relationship and apologizes to her partner for the mistakes she made when they were together.

“You know how I get when I’m wrong/ And I can feel myself becoming/ Somebody I’m not, I’m not, so Emily, forgive me, can we/ Make it up as we go along?/ I’m twenty-seven and I don’t know who I am (Don’t know who I am) But I know what I want.”

Bridgers doesn’t hold back and the vocals backed by Baker and Dacus not only shows how vulnerable Bridgers’ feelings are, but also how she has support from some of her closest friends, literally and figuratively backed up by lucious harmonies.

The album pushes back, just like with their self-titled EP, into being pigeonholed into a box.

It pushes back on what it means to be “a woman in rock” and allows freedom in what boygenius chooses to represent.

Dacus is brilliant in her continuous ability to express stories in her music, bringing that to the forefront in the song “Leonard Cohen,” named after the poet and songwriter.

“On the on-ramp, you said/ ‘If you love me, you will listen to this song’/ And I could tell that you were serious/ So I didn’t tell you you were driving the wrong way/ On the interstate until the song was done.”

It’s a simple yet beautiful song about the intricacies of friendship and how well we know each other in our relationships and how sometimes, that can be uncomfortable.

“You said, ‘I might like you less now that you know me so well’/ I might like you less now that album review

“the record”

Rating:

Artist: boygenius

Release Date: March 31, 2023

Genre: Alternative you know me so well/ Leonard Cohen once said ‘There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’ / And I am not an old man having an existential crisis/ At a Buddhist monastery writing horny poetry/ But I agree.”

The song that resonated with me the most was “Letter To An Old Poet” and as I listened, I thought to myself, “Where was this song when I needed it the most?”

It reminded me that a lot of our experiences are our own, but they can be completely relatable and something that resonates with others deeply.

“You think you’re a good person/ Because you won’t punch me in the stomach.”

It’s an incredible lyric showing that just because your partner, especially ones with toxic tendencies, don’t do something physically or outright evil to you, doesn’t mean you’re always a good person.

Listening to this fully let the waterworks stream down my face in the chorus, “You’re not special, you’re evil/ You don’t get to tell me to calm down/ You make me feel like an equal/ But I’m better than you/ And you should know that by now.”

If people in my life didn’t resonate with the personal issues I was dealing with, I knew that boygenius did, and those lyrics felt like they were called out to me personally.

In those tears, I wasn’t sad or hurt, I felt vindicated and powerful. I was empowered to allow my old pains to wear off and let myself feel anger I’ve been holding onto for quite some time.

That is the power of boygenius and “the record.” It’s not just “sad girl music.”

It’s the power of friendship, in honoring and accepting your mistakes, finding power in being sad and celebrating the intimacies of life and the bonds we carry throughout that life.

Follow Bojana Cvijic on Twitter @bojanaacv