47: True Blue

Happy boygenius weekend to all who celebrate!

And for those who might not know what I'm talking about: boygenius is a supergroup of three of the best singer/songwriters working today: Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, each of whom has a stellar musical career in their own right. Separately, they write sensitive, personal songs about relationships and the fraught nature of being alive in a broken world. They're all distinct, but their songs, and the themes that interest them, harmonize with each other. Baker and Dacus were both raised Christian in the South. Bridgers and Baker both write about the tensions that anxiety and addiction bring to their relationships (and both have thinner, higher voices that contrast with Dacus's rich contralto).

I'm still digging in to The Record, which came out yesterday. As is the case with the individual artists who make up the supergroup, I feel like I need to listen to boygenius songs repeatedly to get a full picture of their depth and complexity. I did, however, get a chance to catch up with "the film," which collects music videos for each of the three lead singles into a brief anthology of sorts. Each song–and its corresponding video–showcases a different member of the group, with the other members playing backup. Julien Baker sings and stars in "$20," while Phoebe Bridgers is the main focus of "Emily," and Lucy Dacus grounds "True Blue."

The same objects appear in each video, even though the stories are different: a white sweatshirt, stained royal blue with paint, a pickup truck, a child's racecar bed, a bonfire. The production design is consistent across all three films as well, though they share distinct settings: a childhood home in a rough part of town, a monster truck arena, an empty house. Director Kristen Stewart mixes high-resolution digital and shakier 16mm footage in collage. The choice feels like a nod to the group's eclectic-yet-unified nature, though the editing isn't quite as controlled as the production design or boygenius's own musical artistry.

That said, some of the imagery is just a touch too literal: Julien Baker starts fixing a car engine while she sings the line "how long's the Chevy been on cinder blocks?" and Phoebe Bridgers sings about a car crash while monster trucks drive over another car behind her. The entire band paints the front room of a house royal blue during the song "True Blue." The literalization of the imagery makes the songs feel smaller, which is mildly disappointing given the way that their music opens up new possibilities for their music beyond their remarkable individual bodies of work.

What I talked about:

For Seeing and Believing podcast, Kevin and I reviewed the AppleTV+ film Tetris, which dramatizes the international copyright battle surrounding the game's distribution. There is a way to make this story interesting, but this movie's version of throwing everything at the wall really doesn't cut it. Thankfully, we paired Tetris with another, much better movie about the intersection between genius, art, and commerce: Milos Forman's Amadeus.

What I watched:

I caught up with the original Rocky, also for the podcast! Our poor Patreon feed has been a little neglected as of late, so to remedy that, I'm having a conversation about Rocky with our producer Jonathan. More to come on that front.

What I'm reading:

I'm still procrastinating Infinite Jest (it's been a long week) but I did get the chance to catch up on the latest issues of Saga.