“Making peace With My Inevitable Death” : A Boygenius Deep Dive
“Making peace with my inevitable death” – Julien Baker, “Anti-Curse”
The top indie girl band, Boygenius, just released their second EP titled the rest, following the early 2023 debut record, called the record. Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, though both their new EP and their album this year explores themes of death and life.
Although a strong theme in the record, the rest more outwardly discusses fear of death, attachment to life and the ultimate peace toward a resolution. Boygenius’s music doesn’t come to any dogmatic conclusions or even try to give witty commentary about life and death explicitly, but instead “the boys” genuinely wrestle through realizations of our fatal end and what that means for the living us now. Bridgers, Dacus and Baker write/sing meaningful lyrics that help give voice to their audience. Singing beautifully and writing cleverly Boygenius connects us toward the human condition of living and dying.
In the earlier release from this year, Bridgers, Dacus and Baker dive into what it truly means to die and the comfort and uncomfortable nature that brings. Interestingly, Bridger’s tracks off both the album and the EP seem to romanticize dying, while Dacus and Baker seem to have a mixed relationship with the prospect of the end.
Bridgers in “Revolution 0” sings: “I don’t want to die / That’s a lie / But I’m afraid to get sick / I don’t know what that is.” Bridgers, like others, initially doesn’t want to die, but by the tempo of her singing quickly takes her statement. Bridgers in the tone of her voice and statements themselves shows she clearly isn’t petrified by the idea of the end. (Her last album even features a song called “I know the end.”) The latter half of the quote highlights Bridger’s unparalleled lyrical style that allows for a stream of consciousness feel that plugs right into her brain.
Again, on the rest Bridgers sings about a similar albeit less outright attitude toward death. On “Voyager,” Bridgers writes, “When you stepped on the gas and you asked if I’m ready to die / You thought I’d never leave and I let you believe you were right.” Her words in “Revolution 0” seem to be a direct response to what this person asks her in this new track.
Dacus on the other hand holds a more natural view on death – one that mixes fear and compliance, but also the wish to live well.
Off the new EP released Oct 13, in Dacus’s highlight track she sings about an out of bounds relationship in probably the most outright exploration of the meaning of danger and death across all 2023 Boygenius releases. Dacus near the beginning of the track shows she’s not adventurous or wild with her life, “I never rode a motorcycle / I’ve never smoked a cigarette.” Dacus clearly is highlighting her attachment and safety she has with her life. But feels even more poignantly the value she places on her life after a night she spent with someone who disregarded their safeties, cementing further that she wants to live. Dacus sings:
You made me climb a cliff at night
You wanted me to jump and I declined
You called me a coward, I replied
“I don’t wanna live forever
But I don’t wanna die tonight”
Like the more normal view on death, one that recognizes death comes at the end, but still values the time living by declining the advent of death or danger. Supposed to Bridgers’s more liberal view on dying, Dacus seems to relate to the masses on her thoughts toward our fatal end. Later in the song, Dacus even turns to gratitude for her experience singing:
I wanna live a vibrant life
But I wanna die a boring death
I know I was a disappointment
Know you wanted me to take a risk
Not everybody gets the chance to live
A life that isn’t dangerous
Dacus exposes the underside of someone who is reckless and disregards their life (similarly this same attitude alludes to the person who said Bridgers if she was ready to die.) But Dacus, almost with a sense of shame (calling herself a disappointment and having a boring life), graciously replies with thankfulness for her situation.
Dacus through her lyrical style and voice shows an opposing side to death. She shows the shame that people have for not wanting to take risks. Both an outright interest for the end, but also a safe aversion to it seems to be stigmatized in indie music culture. Boygenuis helps to bridge the gaps between these different opinions by putting them side by side on the same record/EP.
The beauty of this trio is their undeniable power as lyrical and musical artists, but also the strengths of the differences in experience all of them have. Each Boygenius member has a near perfect solo album(s) but nothing can match the powerhouse they are together. From the diversity of voice, style and perceptive Boygenuis helps us understand culture more broadly but also helps us to wrestle through tough questions with vocal help from artists.
In all their harmonies and similarities, Bridgers, Dacus and Baker give song to all diversity of thought on our ultimate end. And in their own little way, art, song, voice, and harmony help us “make peace with our inevitable death.”
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