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So many universal fates had to align for the record to end up nominated for Album of the Year at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards. From the unplanned gravitation of band members Phoebe Bridgers, Julian Baker, and Lucy Dacus to one another while on the road for their individual music careers to the sparks flying magic that led the female trio to turn their plans of recording one song together into two EPs and a full-length album to the global attention the trio has gotten with just 22 songs in their catalog (hello SNL performance), the record is a result of the devotion of artists to their craft, women connecting over universal humanizing challenges, and the power of letting music lead the way.
Stand-out tracks: "Not Strong Enough" "Satanist" "Letter to An Old Poet"
My favorites: "True Blue" "Cool About It" "Anti-Curse"
The fully acapella intro "Without You Without Them" is the calm before the storm, when boygenius grabs your attention with reckless "$20." The themes of the album are evident from the get-go, with the band alluding to clinging to hope, vintage rock imagery, and the inescapable pressure of reflecting on your self-growth. The gritty electric guitar of "$20" is distinctly opposite from the soft simplicity of the album's intro, but both (along with the rest of the record) are pure ear-candy in terms of breathtaking harmonies.
Classic rock shifts towards alternative indie-rock heard with toned-down "Emily I'm Sorry" and "True Blue." The thing that makes boygenius so incredible as songwriters is captured so perfectly in these two tracks, where sonorous instrumentals couple with deep-felt emotions and intimate experiences that are illustrated with a stunning balance of honesty and ambiguity: "Now you're moving in/Breaking a sweat on your upper lip/And getting pissed about humidity/And the leaky faucet/You already hurt my feelings three times/In the way only you could."This is an album where I consider every single track for the categories of "stand-outs" or "favorites," only to play a mind game with myself of which ones are truly the greatest of an album of greats.
"Cool About It" and "Revolution 0" reflect on the falling out of relationships, with the former putting a palpable knot in your gut over lines like "I came prepared for absolution, if you'd only ask/So I take some offense when you say, 'No regrets'." "Revolution 0" is acoustic and hazy, setting the scene for the lyrical anecdote of the resolve that not only is someone you've known so well drifting away, but you've lost yourself along the way too: "You wanted a song/So it's gonna be a short one/Wish I wasn't so tired/But I'm tired."
the record instrumentally and lyrically draws you into the sonic world it creates, leaving you daydreaming about long drives through wide-open spaces and reflecting on who you are both to yourself and the people who walk through life by your side. This is never clearer than in the album's pinnacle, "Not Strong Enough," an absolutely stunning indie-rock exploration of reflecting on your pitfalls and toughness. Between the beautifully layered vocals, melodic production, and lyrical processing of the humanity of spiraling about your faults, "Not Strong Enough" is simply a triumph.
After hanging up the electric guitars for a couple of tracks, they're back for high-powered "Satanist," which makes light of the inevitable mistakes we make as human beings. The instrumental on this one mirrors the amusement of leaning into the feeling of "If nothing can be known, then stupidity is holy/If the void becomes a bore, we'll treat ourselves to some self-belief" and then reflecting on your recklessness later.
The last two tracks of the album bring the record to its conclusion; "Anti-Curse," again, invokes incredible imagery, this one being standing on the edge of a cliff calling out your anxieties and dreams. The struggle of coming to peace with yourself is narrated beautifully here: "See, you don't have to make it bad/Just 'cause you know how." The album closer, "Letter to an Old Poet," is one last contemplation on losing someone you've loved only to realize you've fallen more in love with yourself. After the journey of love and loss, anxiety and fears, and reflecting and hoping for something greater throughout the record, "Letter to an Old Poet" transcends every story told across the project and wraps them all into a warm, heart-tugging denouement.
GRAMMY for Album of the Year
There's not a perfect way to describe just how good the record is. It's far from predictable, yet it's cohesive in lyrical theming and sonic instrumentation. It's classic yet resoundingly original. It has stand-out hits that have had multi-week success on the Billboard charts while remaining honest and introspective. It sinks deeper into your soul with each listen. And in a male-dominated industry, three powerful indie-rock female musicians joined forces to knock gender stereotypes and unabashedly alight a whole album full of intensely felt feelings and land five GRAMMY nominations for it. Unfortunately, the politics of the music industry do play a factor in determining the winner of titles like Album of the Year, but if the overall quality of a complete album was the sole deciding factor in naming an Album of the Year, the record would undoubtedly take the prize.
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