Julien Baker
Turn Out The Lights
A music podcast landed today with the simple title "Julien Baker Will Make You Cry".
If this review were restricted to five words that would pretty much sum this album up.
Baker injects a huge amount of passion into her music, building layers of emotion within each chorus-less track in such a subtle way that the listener is blown away when she erupts at the song's climax.
And it's not just her moving lyrics: "You don't have to remind me so much how I disappoint you" she sings on lead single Appointments; "I heard there's a fix for every thing, well, then why not me," on Happy To Be Here. She could be singing in Swedish and you'd still be in tears.
But with both music and words Baker presents an introspective picture of quiet turmoil.
On Sour Breath you can feel her struggle as she repeats "The harder I swim the faster I sink", finally screaming the words into the void of the gap between tracks.
