'the record' by boygenius: Album Review

Since their debut in 2018, boygenius have shown that they have hidden potential behind their respective solo careers. An unlikely trio consisting of three musicians, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julian Baker, each with their distinct approach and personality, but with the lowest common denominator: an artistic sensibility that shines through in the strength and vitality of their first album, 'the record'. To call it a side project would be far too reductive, and not even the US trio would appreciate it, as Bridgers explained in a recent interview: 'I think the term is trivialized because there aren't many interesting supergroups in that context. I don't think many supergroups are more than the sum of their parts. And I think we are the closest'. 
Recorded at Shangri-La Studio in Los Angeles last year and produced entirely by the songwriters, 'the record' is a project born of multiple writing and recording sessions, confessions and prayers, exaggerations, and digressions.
Hovering between revelation and mystery, each song is the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that comes together regardless of its assembling criteria.

Bridgers, Dacus and Baker find a place for themselves from the very first notes of the opening track, 'Without You Without Them', an "a cappella" introduction that plays a lot with the harmonies and textures of the three respective voices on the track, as if as a testimony to their deep artistic partnership. The connection between the various parts is evident from the moment it was decided to pre-empt the release of "the record" with three singles, each featuring a member of the supergroup: Bridgers dealt with a love story born under an unlucky star with 'Emily I'm Sorry', Baker left her mark in '$20', while Dacus let herself be consumed by 'True Blue', one of the album's highlights.
There is a vacillation between love ('We're In Love') and anger ('Anti-Curse'), a clear sense of confusion and equally irreverent reflections on finding one's place in the world ('Revolution 0'), which has led these young songwriters to constantly question themselves. It is an exercise both physical and mental that not all musicians manage with ease.
'Cool About It' speaks of a lack of communication with a Simon & Garfunkel vibe, while 'Not Strong Enough' tells of the hatred we all too often harbor towards ourselves and how it can become a God complex.
Everyone is free to read the album's concepts as they wish. The listener is given plenty of leeways to enter a multi-layered cosmos of contrasts and drives, acoustic guitars, distinct rock riffs, and dream-pop veiled synths.

Another highlight of the album is 'Leonard Cohen', a part-ballad, part-social commentary that samples one of his well-known anthems ('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'). This is followed by the provocative 'Satanist' ('Will you be a nihilist with me?/If nothing matters, man, that's a relief/Solomon was right when he wrote Ecclesiastes/If nothing can be known, then stupidity is sacred') and 'Letter To An Old Poet', which even includes the buzz of the crowd present at one of the trio's first live shows in 2018 at Brooklyn Steel in New York to the notes of their very own 'Me & My Dog'.
The three female artists have repeatedly stated how important the separatist writing of the twelve tracks that make up 'the record' is, as the isolation and subsequent meeting in the recording studio would allow each of them to be more sincere than their previous solo productions. Once in the headphones, listening to boygenius, one is sure to witness the presence of a triune entity, with three musical backgrounds and three creative processes not necessarily aligned. Nevertheless, this debut, packaged as a Christmas present, is a first (ambitious) step towards a more than rosy future.

Words: Alessia Bisini

Disclaimer: The original version of this concert review appeared on the Italian publication HeyJude Magazine on March 31st, 2023.