The Record: A review of Boygenius’s record-breaking debut album

By Kayla Harper

Boygenius released their Grammy-winning debut album, The Record, two years ago on March 31, 2023. Composed of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, Boygenius is the supergroup of indie-rock lovers dreams. Initially formed in 2018 with the release of three singles, “Bite The Hand”, “Stay Down” and “Me & My Dog”, which would later appear on their debut self-titled EP.  Although their next project, The Record, would not be released for another five years, it was well worth the wait.

While The Record is similar to each member’s individual solo projects, it simultaneously is something that could not exist the way it does as a solo project by any of the three members as it incorporates each of their unique talents which differentiates their solo work from each other, into one cohesive masterpiece.

The Record leans towards indie-rock and alternative pop, but draws inspiration from a wide array of artists including The National, Big Thief, LCD Soundsystem and Death Cab For Cutie among many other artists. The full playlist curated by the members themselves can be found on spotify.

Despite the fluidity as each track effortlessly flows to the next, making it obvious that each song belongs together in one body of work, there is so much diversity throughout the album that makes each track different and exciting.

The Record is opened by an acapella track, sung on by all three members who harmonize with each other across its duration.  “Without You, Without Them” sufficiently introduces listeners to the three voices that will be heard throughout the rest of the record.  

The track that follows, “$20”, picks up with what the band refers to as Baker’s “sick guitar riffs” which they are certainly not wrong about.  These sick guitar riffs can be heard across the album, prominent in songs such as “Not Strong Enough”, “Satanist” and “Anti-Curse”.  Bridgers’s powerful scream does not appear often in her discography, but when it does, it’s effective and shocking.  It can be heard alongside Baker’s sick riffs on “$20” as she sings/screams “I know have $20”.  Originally, this was supposed to be the only line she sang the entire song.

Dacus leads two of the vulnerable, but more hopeful tracks, “True Blue” and “We’re In Love”.  Her soothing, lower register delivers innocent, but dreamy vocals as she appears to sing to a supposed lover.  She also leads “Leonard Cohen” which is a track born out of a true story in which Bridgers was driving while the other two were in the car and insisted they listen to Iron and Wine’s “The Trapeze Swinger”. Neither Dacus or Baker had the heart to tell her she was driving the wrong direction until the song was done…then “Leonard Cohen” was born.

The sick guitar riffs slow down to acoustic melodies for “Emily I’m Sorry”, “Revolution 0” and “Letter To An Old Poet” all of which are led by Bridgers and closely resemble her solo work.  These bluntly honest and vulnerable tracks each address a former partner, friend or situation with what seems to be a mix of anger, regret, guilt and sadness.

A significant detail which can only be heard when listening to the physical copy of the album on vinyl is the infinite runout groove, which sounds like a broken record and is used to create this ominous feeling of waiting for something that may never actually happen, this occurs after Bridgers sings the final lyrics of the album, “I’m waiting” in “Letter To An Old Poet”.

It’s also interesting how this track links back to “Me & My Dog” from Boygenius’s first EP.  On “Me & My Dog” Bridgers sings, “I wanna be emaciated, I wanna hear one song without thinking of you, I wish I was on a spaceship just me and my dog and an impossible view”.  On “Letter To An Old Poet” she sings, “I wanna be happy, I’m ready to walk into my room without looking for you, I’ll go up to the top of our building and remember my dog when I see the full moon”. 

“Cool About It”, one of the most popular songs on the album, finds the trio each revealing confessions of unreciprocated love over beautiful finger-style acoustic guitar.  The most successful track on the album “Not Strong Enough” won the group two Grammys in 2024 for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.  The idea was first brought to the group’s attention by Bridgers, who had started writing it about self-hatred as well as having this God complex simultaneously; a sort of mental illness in which you are simply not strong enough to be the person you need to be.

Baker, Bridgers and Dacus are accomplished and successful solo artists.  However, there is no doubt that when they pooled their talents together on The Record they created one of the best albums of the 21st century.  The specificity among the imagery entangled throughout the lyrics paints a vivid scene and as a result it successfully evokes strong emotional responses in the listener.  On top of this, Boygenius knows how to create a sonically cohesive album that still contains enough instrumental variability to remain surprising and intriguing as the listener travels through each melody.  The Record is definitely THE record that everyone should have a copy of in their collection.