Off the back of planning a joint tour that starts this month, three of the most important singer-songwriters in music right now have formed a supergroup. Together they are boygenius, comprising of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and their debut EP is an example of how to do a supergroup well.
The six track self-titled EP has each artist bringing one song each that is distinctly in their individual style whilst the rest of the EP is comprised of tracks that have formed from an individual’s idea and then fleshed out together. As to be expected from three musicians whose collective body of work is astounding, the result when they come together is spectacular.
Opening up the EP is the Dacus led “Bite The Hand”, it’s a perfect introduction into why this joint effort works so well. The track is immediately recognisable in Dacus’ style, opening with a lone guitar, with a tone that wouldn’t be out of place on “Historian”, but there’s only thirty seconds before thudding drums are introduced as Bridgers and Baker offer their vocals to support the heartbreaking refrain “I can’t love you like you want me to”.
Phoebe Bridgers leads “Me & My Dog”, which sonically and thematically fits nicely alongside her stunning 2017 album “Stranger in the Alps” albeit with hints of country underneath Bridgers’ trademark fuzzy guitar. It painfully details dealing with a break-up and the emotion is intensified when Baker and Dacus join in unison to proclaim “I never said I’d be all right, Just thought I could hold myself together.”
“Stay Down” sees Julien Baker at the forefront and it’s harrowingly beautiful in it’s depiction and delivery, effectively conjuring up imagery of isolation after the end of a relationship with lines such as “I wasn’t a fighter til somebody told me // I had better learn to lean into the punch // So I don’t hurt as bad when they leave”. For fans of Baker’s solo music, and her usual signature stripped back solo electric guitar sound, it offers a glimpse of how a full band can fill out the sound whilst not detracting from her powerful voice or the passionate delivery we’re used to.
Baker also provided the lyrics for “Souvenir” but it was finished as a group with each of the artists taking turns to deliver a verse over a more sparse, acoustic number as the group harmonise to majestic effect over the repeated “ooh-oohs”. “Salt In The Wound” is an epic, soaring number which showcases the group’s powerhouse vocals which play off each other perfectly here.
Finishing up the EP is the raw, stripped back, “Ketchum, ID” which was recorded with all three members of boygenius around one microphone and Bridger’s acoustic guitar backing them. It portrays the solitude of being a tourist artist, a notion that all the contributors will relate to, as they harmonise “I am never anywhere// Anywhere I go // When I’m home I’m never there // Long enough to know”.
The only downside to the EP is it’s brevity, with the sheer talent and chemistry on display here it would be a real shame to never see what these three brilliant songwriters can bring together in the future.
