The Genius of Boygenius

Abbie Klein

On Wednesday, Oct. 11, I had the pleasure of attending an early release listening party for Boygenius’ new EP “the rest” that was set to release on the following Friday, Oct. 13. The listening party took place at Criminal Records in Atlanta, GA, and was open to all. 

The all female supergroup consisting of singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus announced the release of “the rest” just a few weeks ago on Sept. 25.

“The rest” is a four song EP set to follow the supergroup’s debut album “the record” that was released on March 31, 2023.

The tracklist starts with “Black Hole,” a song that was inspired by a social media post Dacus shared with Baker about black holes creating stars instead of destroying them like scientists initially believed, hence the lyrics in the first verse, “You can see the stars, the ones the headlines said this morning were being’ spat out by what we thought was destroying everything for good”.

The track starts with Baker’s vocals in the first verse followed by Dacus’ and Bridgers’ harmonizing together in the second after an instrumental break. 

Following “Black Hole” comes the Dacus-led track “Afraid of Heights.” The song is about treading carefully through life due to holding high values for your future, and how it is to have a relationship with someone who feels the opposite about their life. It touches on ideas of risk-taking and how that can positively or negatively affect a person’s life.

This track contains the most amount of storytelling with the lyrics. The imagery describes very specific settings and situations within a relationship, and what effect those situations had on Dacus.

The third track “Voyager” is my personal favorite and arguably one of the saddest songs the group has written. The track talks about the loss and destruction that comes along with being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t love you as much as you love them.

 Bridgers’ haunting voice is backed by a guitar and humming vocals, which add to the emotion and vulnerability of the lyrics. The song ends abruptly with a heartbreaking lyric that goes, “you took it from me but I would’ve given it to you” circling back to the idea of one-sided love. 

The EP ends with “powers.” The song featuring Baker’s powerful vocals starts with a heavy guitar that follows the style of past Baker-led songs like “Anti-curse” and “Stay Down.’’ Baker wonders about her own origin story by comparing it to those of superheroes from comic books and pop culture. 

Overall the EP does a wonderful job of wrapping up “the record.” It contains all of the elements that fans love about Boygenius’ work. Everything from layered vocals, intense lyrics, gorgeous harmonies and melodies that you can’t get out of your head appear in this EP. Although it’s short, the songs greatly differ and there’s something for everyone. “The rest” was a pleasant surprise for any fan of Boygenius and has now only added to the anticipation of what the group will come up with next.