Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle, my god

Been a long time since a debut from a singer-songwriter hit me this hard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmGVIvf8Q6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKiAQzYKrVo

"Rejoice" is a performance for the ages

Kind of reminds me of hearing Because I Was In Love for the first time and appreciating that this is a songwriter who will probably go on to make better records, but will probably never make one this raw and pure again

oh yeah this record gave me a nervous breakdown

I had to take breaks from it when I first started listening to it, now I can't pull myself away. Just finished my fourth listen today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynGDdomiI4

lol sorry if you feel alone in this thread evan, this is a really stunning record that deserves more attention (it's getting huge in the emo circles i run in tbf)

this is the one that kills me (i listened to it for the first time like... two days before a breakup)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xj72bDud40

really good record, title track is the killer for me, so economically crushing.

It's a top 5 of the year record for me. And it is funny, it does push my "I love this and so I want other people to really love this, too" button in a way I usually don't allow

I'm impressed by how much she does here. A lot of songwriters around her age/from her scene thrive on small, slice of life, slice of relationship songs, but she takes such a bigger view. She's writing about addiction, dependency, faith, mortality—all these huge topics it's really hard to do justice to in such intimate songs, but somehow she pulls it off. It's a big album disguised as a little one.

Pulse is slow
Faint metronome on my left side
Beneath my protruding spine
You can hardly hear the knife
Lying flat, blind on
Covering my sunken eyes
And the line rightful
Aimed at my sick mind

This album might have topped my EOY lists if I'd had just a little more time with it. Been listening nonstop and somehow I'm still loving it more each time.

I have nothing to add other than that I agree this is a very good record.

i'm hearing lyrics that might seem trite or cliched on paper, but she really sells them

yeah it's her voice that tells the story usually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME1gGWsK9rE

I'm probably just gonna keep bumping this thread until every song from the album has been posted here b/c I love them all

I think it's a beautifully recorded album. That video there sounds lovely too. I'm a total sucker for that type of guitar sound. I should play more. Or at all.

"I've kissed enough bathroom sinks to make up for the lovers who never loved me"

I've only been able to listen to this album twice in total. it is so impressive and gorgeous and spacious and I literally can't listen to it without crying haha

Yeah I could only digest it in tiny nibbles for the first week or so, but it's been a constant companion since I got inoculated to it. (I still have to skip "Sometimes" and "Rejoice" some days though)

I think her use of space is the most remarkable thing about this. it's like hovering over a black hole

I just let the silence swallow me up
The ring in my ears tastes like blood
Asking aloud, "Why you leavin'?"
But the pavement won't answer me

Also enjoying the 2013 LP from Baker's previous band, which is on Bandcamp. A lot of it sounds like Paramore by way of Codeine

http://thestarkillerstn.bandcamp.com/track/vertical-cities-2

A lot of it sounds like Paramore by way of Codeine

oh this will probably actually kill me

The passion itt has spurred me to check this out. Can I just say, though, that I only opened the thread in the first place because I misunderstood and thought that Sprained Ankle, My God was a really hilarious album title.

Can I just say, though, that I only opened the thread in the first place because I misunderstood and thought that Sprained Ankle, My God was a really hilarious album title.

Well it took me reading this post to realize that was not the title...

(I would listen to the songs posted here but for the most part they're not available in my country, I don't get the fucking logic behind doing that if you're an artist or a label)

People who forget it's the 21st C. clinging to antiquated models of media distribution iirc.

raise yr hand if you recognized the "In Christ Alone" melody right away

man this star killers record is amazing

like REALLY amazing

I was thinking "holy shit it's an album tailor-made for Brad" the first few times I heard it.

I like the structuring of it, where the plucky, emo-y opening stretch gives way to spacier, moodier songs as the album goes on. So much good material here. And that last song really foreshadows her solo record

it has become my favorite album from 2015, ordered the cd a week ago

it is amazing

I'm thinking about driving to Madison (a three-hour round trip) this Saturday to see her play an opening set on a bill with three other bands. My guess is she'll play 20 minutes tops? But it's still tempting.

I really hope she does a European tour but at the same time I'm already nervous abt the crowd cause it would need to be pretty quiet for her show to work I imagine

somehow listening to the album alone is perfect setting

I saw a post on Facebook about a London show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-qbPq1y70

this is really good
but i'm not going to listen to this again
just to make a couple references to things i listened to when i was younger and more prone to want to wallow in my own sadness

(this is not to say this is stylistically the same this is way more 00s indie/post-emo)

but it reminds me of the first elliot smith album and a lot of the songs: ohia/magnolia electric co. in that it's the type of music that wants to "pull you under" so to speak and i think she's good and talented but nope nope nope

niels, she has a handful of dates in Belgium, UK, Spain and Germany at the end of May listed here: https://www.facebook.com/julienrbaker/app/308540029359/

great news!

the type of music that wants to "pull you under" so to speak and i think she's good and talented but nope nope nope
so damn otm (but yes yes yes)

yeah i get the same feeling as ums, which is why i've listened to this album approximately 3 times in total

it's amazing still

Also obv I hope there is more distance between her and her work than the two I mentioned

this album, my god

Do you think that there's a way I could ever get too far
That you'd ask me where I'd been
Like I ask you where you are?

UK and European tour dates!

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/12687879_1285637934785433_2776795949432720901_n.jpg?oh=2323eb2ed0cbe599271431545a3fe63a&oe=57669B12

I guess I'll have to go on a small vacation - anyone happen to know that one of these venues is particularly great?

was talking to a friend abt this record - we both feel there's an age specifity to some of the emotions Baker expresses, and at first this made us appreciate the record from a distance, but then it pulls you in, and suddenly it's like being a teenager again, let's you access some p strong emotions

(not sure if I'm expressing myself clearly, certainly don't want it to come off as patronizing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTjko70fBg

whoa thanks for posting! i jsut watched the full concert vid and they mentioned east coast tour, which i didn't know about :)

New song for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. It's sad and pretty, like all the others

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/04/469247254/julien-baker-tiny-desk-concert?autoplay=true

yeeeees she's coming to Aarhus in May!

Been a long time since a debut from a singer-songwriter hit me this hard

I drove from Mississippi to Nashville to see her a week or two ago, because I feel the same way. Her record reminds of when the first Smiths record came out when I was a teenager. Not that it sounds anything like the Smiths, but there is that same feeling that this person is articulating emotions that I have felt. You could have heard a pin drop while she was playing, she had the room in the palm of her hand, although her between-song banter was self-deprecating and funny.

Aside from the lyrics, I love how the music is sooooooo spare and spartan: she gets an awful lot out of one or two chords and a delay pedal. In that regard, it reminds me of the very early Durutti Column records, if they were slowed and stripped down even further.

The musical side of it is so perfect, just can't imagine these songs any other way.

that is awesome!

I love jackson browne

I love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrV4SFp5N0U

Cool that the guitar magazine bro seems to be a fan.

she really seems like the nicest person

and she does awesome things with her guitar

wild to imagine that future generations discovering julien baker will (probably) be able to find videos like this

wonder why it's unlisted

They keep them unlisted for the first week to push people to access it from their site.

aah, clever

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/11/29/boygenius_cpollack_brick-02f55231f7ee6092d2ae7404589d9acb5525f594-s2000-c85.jpg
with love from Cameron Pollack/NPR

the boygenius ep is great. somehow i only discovered it now.

somehow I only tried her music lately, and now I am head over heels, can barely listen to anything else. it's as though "Little Fury Bugs" is a genre and it warrants 10000x investigations, every angle must be pursued. my ankles are sprained.

I've only heard Turn Out the Lights, did she cover that Death Cab song somewhere?

no, but "Appointments" for instance is a take on it, in the way that the lines of marble guide the sculpter's hand

Oh! I see what you mean now, sorry, that makes sense. Now I have another reason to go back to "Appointments" though!

the way she sings "marathon runner, my ankles are sprained", and in particular, the word "my" into the word "ankles", I could listen to that forever and ever and ever. I feel a terrible loss, or even a shame, there that I can't understand outside the singing. is shame supposed to be so beautiful?

new shit!

https://youtu.be/bWAOkg2i6_g

there is actual percussion! it sounds good! album is out in february.

Yeah I like that.

Once again I fell into a loop of watching live performances of her and it’s so hypnotizing. Seeing her perform
is the definition of Sehnsucht for me.

I have only listened to Julien Baker a lil bit (mostly the boygenius record) but this is one of my favorite ILM thread titles

'hypnotizing' otm

The boygenius record is probably the best thing she has been involved with. I don’t think I actually like listening to her lyrics or her records in a way that I enjoy let’s say, Phoebe Bridgers, but seeing her live performances is so enthralling to me because she seems to go somewhere else when doing so. The way she gets completely lost in it is not that common to see imho... it’s the small performances of her... I’ve seen videos of her with big audiences and I don’t think it works that well because she’s sounds more self-conscious.

I have the opposite problem. I can't get into any of Bridgers's solo stuff but I love Baker and Boygenius

I've fallen down a couple of Baker YouTube wormholes recently. She's captivating on stage - lost in it and seemingly lacking in self-consciousness. I've been trying to find a non-weird way of saying 'it's her mouth' but there it is. That turn of the head she does. She's so good.

This sounds really interesting and I'd love to hear what any ilxors with musical nous might make of it.

"For the exciting Isolate/Create project, Julien Baker offers the stems for her new single “Faith Healer” from the forthcoming album ‘Little Oblivions’. These are supplied for the purpose of remixing and reinterpretation, hopefully offering some fodder for creativity during this challenging time."

https://www.isolatecreate.com/julien-baker/

I love Julien Baker, and at the same time I agree she's not (so far) as distinctive a songwriter as Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus. Or she's distinctive, but it all pretty much sounds like the same song (a good song, but still). That said, I like her whole sound and vibe enough that I don't really care. AND the one time I got to see her live was just incandescent, she's an amazing performer. Anyway, I like "Faith Healer" and I'll be happy to hear the new album. Hoping that she's maybe sharpened and varied her approach a bit.

xp

Cool! I may download those and try it. Any ideas for a remix/re-imagining?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGBIAiJPF4&

I want to love everything she does but I'm just not that wild about the sound of this record so far

yeah i feel the same at the moment

also

hm, i think this sounds awesome but i'm not sure i hear the song yet

record is self-produced! that's interesting! i was like is this dave fridmann

weird, I'm currently listening to the Apple Music Julien Baker Essentials playlist for the millionth time, did not know a new song was on the way today

I like the song, but love the video.

her previous work never really clicked with me but the new album is sounding good, really like her arrangements

her new work still is not clicking with me. I don't like the arrangements :(

maybe it's just that her vox and lyrics are so big and intense on their own that even relatively small additions feel to me like a hat on a hat, just a giant stack of self-loathing hats

I've had this on repeat in the background while I'm working, and at that level I like it but only a few songs have made me pause to see what their titles are. In general it sounds a lot like Turn Out the Lights, with the arrangements a natural progression from that album's fuller sound. I like her a lot, but also I think she's kind of a great sound in search of great songs. More songwriting collaborations would be good for her imo.

I think my other problem, and this might just be me, is that the lyrics tip over into a level of pain and self-loathing where I honestly just start to worry whether this level of public emotional exposure is healthy or even safe, especially since she seems to get more raw and specific with each release (and has grown in commercial stature with each one). like, I'm not in recovery but I have friends who are, and imagining them putting themselves "out there" to this extent makes my stomach churn

Yeah, I admire her candor and also hope this is all catharsis rather than crisis.

Another song just registered for me. Maybe if I listen to it all weekend they'll differentiate themselves.

is it a pixies track that favor rips at the beginning?

sounds a bit like "Gigantic" maybe

hmm i think that's why i thought of pixies but i think there's something else out there that's closer to it that isn't a pixies track i guess

"here comes your man"? that's the track that comes to mind, but only because i'm listening specifically for a pixies reference. having said that, i get more of a sebadoh vibe from those opening notes

still not all the way into this album, but "Repeat" is pretty great. in a super grim way.

A ton of great melodies on this album, and the lyrics are raw, effective, and gutting, but the production and recording sounds quite muddied and leaves me wanting throughout. Still one of the better American indie-rock records I've heard this year.

great live show!! Her voice is amazing and her band rips and she seems like a really cool person!!!

sorry for xasanthur style post

The new song with Torres is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcTr10SpRhs

Also I'd never gone back and watched clips of her first Memphis band. She's 15 here I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4E35RX9Dyc

Not sure I love the song yet but a) that SUIT and b) BANJO.