Good people of Enloe, the boys are officially back in town. Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, collectively known as Boygenius, have been fiddling with the heartstrings of their listeners this year after a nearly five-year hiatus following the 2018 release of their self-titled debut EP. Despite having only six tracks, Boygenius left indie rock listeners stunned and hungry for more music from the trio.
The artists that make up Boygenius had all separately established their standings in the music industry in the mid-2010s and met in 2016. Two years later, they were all booked on tour together where the three’s brainchild was born, and boy was it genius! Boygenius’ self-titled debut was released in 2018. The EP was met with praise worldwide and was named NPR’s 12th best album of the year. Hits like “Me & My Dog” and “Bite the Hand ” resurfaced in 2020 and 2021 when each member released a solo album. Enloe student Regan Lloyd, an avid Boygenius listener, found the supergroup through one of these songs. “Me & My Dog was the first song I heard by the boys.”
Although released independently, Bridgers, Baker, and Dacus featured backup vocals from the other Boygenius members on some of their songs. The bond between the band members is evident even in their solo careers. “The band overall has such a loving and positive energy surrounding it. I love the representation of platonic love that is shown anytime the three of them interact. Genuinely the perfect depiction of a found family,” says Regan Lloyd, Enloe senior and die-hard Boygenius fan.
The band has recurrent themes of empowerment and feminism, both through their music and public presence. Members have explained that the name “Boygenius” is a reference to the too-large egos of men in the music industry and the superiority complexes they have over their female counterparts. Every instrument on the record was played by a woman and all of its producers were female as well. At a June 25th performance in Baker’s home state of Tennessee, Boygenius played their entire set in drag to protest the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-drag legislation. Bridgers said the government is “actively trying to kill the coolest people” in a recent interview with Billboard Magazine.
The trio announced the release date of their first full-length album, the record, along with three singles in March of this year. The album was put out alongside a 14-minute film. Directed by Kristen Stewart and starring an all-female cast, this video made every Doc Marten wearer’s dreams come true. It tells the story of each song on the recent single, complete with homoerotic themes and the screeching tires and fire mentioned in “Emily I’m Sorry.” The band reached a much larger audience after this release, with “Not Strong Enough” rising to the top of Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart.
After the acclaimed release, Boygenius announced a tour. Luckily for fans at Enloe, two concerts were planned to take place in North Carolina. “Obviously just seeing them in person was insane because when I listen to their music, I don’t really even think about them being physical people, just little voices coming from my phone,” said Lloyd when asked about her experience at the Wilmington concert in June. “The overall concert experience was so amazing. I lost my voice the next day, but it was so worth it.”
2023 truly has been a year of constant surprises for the trio’s groupies. On October 13th–the first Friday the 13th since the album’s release–the supergroup released the rest, a continuation of the record comprising four songs. “Black Hole” energetically starts the EP, followed by the personal “Afraid of Heights”, the ballad “Voyager,” and ends with the guitar-heavy “Powers.” The opening number, “Black Hole,” is the only song that cannot be attributed to any specific member’s style. Each other song on the EP highlights one of the three members writing, singing, and general musical manner. For example, “Powers” begins with the classic guitar strumming reminiscent of Baker’s discography, and continues to have Baker as the leading voice throughout it, with Dacus and Bridgers joining in on backing vocals. This isn’t a new theme for the band, but it’s much more obvious in the rest than in their previous releases. The EP itself was unexpected, as previously, it took five years for the three to release new music. The title of the rest breeds an air of finality and uncertainty among the three’s fanbase. Will they continue to make music together? Will they take another break from collaborating, or dissolve altogether? Whichever route Boygenius’ story takes, their devoted fans are happily coming along for the ride.
