Supergroup boygenius returns with three new tracks

By Aiden Nelson

Sad indie girls rejoice! Power trio boygenius – composed of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers – has risen from a four year hiatus with three new songs as a teaser for their upcoming album, the record, to follow on March 31. 

Photo: Harrison Whitford

The first of the three songs is titled “$20.” The song, propelled by a driving bass line and Baker’s lush vocals, is an indie rock anthem that sets the tone for a new era of boygenius. It’s still authentic to their previous album thematically, but feels polished and amped up. Somehow both danceable and cry-able; as Baker takes the reins, Bridgers and Dacus provide backing vocals that finish her sentences. These harmonies overlap and build, a crescendo that leads to a glittering chaos. The screaming at the end of the track feels inevitable – every lyric and riff has been leading to this outpouring of emotion -- “$20” is aching and desperate. The opening lyric of “it’s a bad idea and I’m all about it,” sets up the song to be a train off its tracks, gaining momentum as Baker sings of motorcycles and fires in a graveyard, leading to the repeated line of “[out of] gas, out of time, out of money” as the instrumentals devolve into a chaotic soundscape. A plea for money can be heard – first as “May I please have $20?” then as “Can you give me $20?” and finally as a desperate scream that ends the track: “I know you have $20! I know you have $20!” 

This furious desperation and longing is immediately juxtaposed by the second track of the three – “Emily I’m Sorry.” With Bridgers on lead vocals and Baker and Dacus on hushed harmonies, this track is a heart wrenching admission of regret, walking the line between hyper specificity and universality. This is something the members of boygenius have done expertly in their solo work as well as when in their power trio: given exquisite details of an individualized moment between relatable truths. The specifics provide points of grounding between the familiar feelings she sings of: feelings of loss and yearning and regret. While I have never wronged someone named Emily as mentioned in the song, I understand what Bridgers means when she sings, “I can feel myself becoming somebody I’m not.” The lyrics border on poetry, building a narrative with each song. “Emily I’m Sorry” has motifs from “$20,” such as cars and dreams and fire that lead into the third and final track of the teaser: “True Blue.”

Dacus shines in “True Blue” as she sings of moving away from home and being known deeply. The sweetest – as well the longest -- of the tracks from the teaser, “True Blue” is stripped down yet anthemic, a glistening portrayal of forgiveness and finding yourself. The track is in direct opposition to the previous tracks, taking similar motifs and turning them on their head. In “$20,” Baker sings of driving and getting stuck; in “True Blue,” driving is an act of acceptance and renewal. Bridgers sings of the cold and feeling lost in “Emily I’m Sorry,” whereas “True Blue” touches on the heat of summer and feeling known. “Emily I’m Sorry” is an apology but “True Blue” – with lyrics like “who won the fight? I don’t know, we’re not keeping score” – is an song of forgiveness. 

As a whole, these three tracks work together as a polished continuation of the boygenius discography – each of them have matured in their solo work, which has bled into their sound as a trio. They tackle similar themes as on their self-titled, their honesty about grief and anger and sadness as cutthroat as it is poetic. boygenius has never sugarcoated or pulled punches in their lyrics, and these three tracks off the forthcoming the record show that they are still the sad indie girl icons they’ve always been – just with a more polished sound. 

I’m deliriously excited about this album. If anyone needs me on March 31st… no you don’t.