Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Tuesday
Those Th
Those understandably lamenting that boygenius have gone into an indefinite hiatus actually have reasons to celebrate, each of the three artists in the group have released solo albums in the past month, starting with Lucy Dacus' excellent Forever is a Feeling.
And now the highly regarded Grammy-nominated alt.rock singer-songwriter Julien Baker moves from one acclaimed collaboration (with Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers in boygenius) to this with New York's Torres (Mackenzie Scott) for an album of country music.
Not a stretch, they have backgrounds in Georgia and Tennessee.
Together they step between mainstream country (Sugar in the Tank with the escapism of “picking up steam on the off-ramp, getting the hell out of downtown”) and alt.country on the battered emotions of Dirt.
Sylvia looks at the cost on relationships of touring: “Neither of my two minds can decide if I'm at home on the road when I know the road ain't any kind of home”.
Travel and same-sex relationships – both are in relationships with women, both came from Christian homes – are at the album's core.
The heartbreaking standout is Tuesday: “Her mama caught wind that her daughter's friend might be of the wrong persuasion” but the singer asserts “I'm perfect in my Lord's eyes” and concludes “Tell your mama she can go suck an egg”.
This is a very different kind of country music but is also a collection of quiet power and empowerment.
Recommended.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.
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