For thousands of years, music has been one of the only aspects of the human experience that people can identify with on an intense and wholehearted level. The album, “The Record”, by Phoebe Bridger, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, the members of the band Boygenius, perfectly encompasses this ability to reach deeply hidden emotions and desires, and bring them to life in various styles of music. As their buttery, angelic voices weave in and out of your ears, you can’t help but be pulled into the soul of each song. No matter where you are on life’s journey, Boygenius’ album has a song that will touch your heart and cause you to reflect on the subtleties of human nature, both in yourself and the world around you.
One of the stand out elements in Boygenius’ writing is their immaculate ability to convey precise feelings through their choice of words. Numerous methods of expression can be heard in their music, ranging anywhere from direct proclamations of emotion to complicated metaphors that mimic the nuance of each situation they describe. In the song “Not Strong Enough”, the trio’s flooding harmonies convey messages about dealing with mental illness and feeling a sense of powerlessness in their lives. They express these ideas both through the statement “I am not strong enough to be your man”, a simple yet powerful statement repeated each time the chorus returns, and “Always an angel never a god”, a metaphor for the notion that the best they can be is the best second in command. While commentating on this line in a Genius interview, Dacus says that if you have to be powerless, “you can at least excel in your powerlessness”, which is certainly a sentiment that most people have connected with at some point in their life.
The variety of topics covered within “The Record” is also one of the aspects that makes this album so intriguing. If you are married and settled down, you might enjoy the song “True Blue”, a sweet and sentimental track about the complexities of a dependable, long-lasting love. If you are young and still trying to find yourself, you might enjoy the song “$20”, an upbeat tune in which Baker’s lively and passionate vocals epitomize the recklessness and free spirited energy of a person’s early years.
Each song of “The Record” plays an important role in building this unique album that touches on a wide assortment of life’s most fundamental circumstances, the basis of the human experience. Known for their poetic honesty and their moving harmonies, Boygenius is sure to elicit deep bittersweet feelings in anyone who listens to their music, and help them find the true beauty in life’s unpredictability.