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One of 2021’s Best Records is An Intimate Breakup Breakthrough Slate 3/3/2021 Carl Wilson © Provided by Slate Musican Julien Baker performs onstage during FYF Fest 2016 at Los Angeles Sports Arena on August 28, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Every music lover knows that there are some artists who don’t connect with you, no matter how much you try. But as I’ve learned over time as a critic, you can find inroads to appreciating artists and...

Every music lover knows that there are some artists who don’t connect with you, no matter how much you try. But as I’ve learned over time as a critic, you can find inroads to appreciating artists and even whole genres that don’t initially appeal to you—for instance, by investigating their cultural contexts, and trying to open your ears to the ways their core audiences hear them. It’s trickier with an artist beloved by people whose tastes you tend to share, whose music doesn’t stray ...

Baker’s latest is a gut punch that comes out swinging, once again providing some of the most cathartic indie rock in the game, as well as her most anthemic songs to date.

Little Oblivions reflects upon the chaos we are currently living through, as well as a reflection of Baker’s own run-ins with adversity.

Little Oblivions, is a statement of intent. Throughout her 2015 debut, Sprained Ankle, and its excellent follow-up, Turn Out The Lights, sparsity was the watchword. If youve ever been to one of her intimate live shows, youll know this: alone on stage, she uses only a guitar, a keyboard and a loop pedal. It means that her heart-on-sleeve lyrics – which are forthright about addiction and depression – stand out above all else. Take her biggest hit, "Appointments", a heartbreaking self-...

Her new album, Little Oblivions, ignores that impulse. Instead Baker doesn’t worry over how her fan base might view her. You can tell she’s writing for herself this time around. Here Baker gives a deeper insight into her psyche, seemingly processing thoughts in real time as she sings. Many of the songs were written when the artist experienced a relapse after speaking extensively about her recovery from substance abuse. Rather than hiding that aspect of her personal life, Baker narrates he...

made the songsmith an instant sensation. Baker was an undergrad at Middle Tennessee State University at the time, writing emotionally charged, Telecaster-and-pedalboard-powered tunes from her unique point of view as a queer punk rocker from a Christian family raised in Germantown, Tenn. — a Memphis suburb and a conservative pocket in a county that leans blue.  For Baker, Sprained Ankle attracted a congregation of folk, indie, emo and post-rock appreciators, striking a particular chord ...

Baker played nearly all the instruments on the demon-battling, searingly personal  Little Oblivions and recorded it with producer, engineer and longtime friend Calvin Lauber in December 2019 and January 2020 at Young Avenue Sound. The album’s other collaborators include her boygenius bandmates, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers, who contributed backing vocals to “Favor.” The trio put out an acclaimed EP in 2018, and Baker confirms that there will be more to come. “I d...

mtv Julien Baker Can Run Away, But She Wont Music itself, the organizations of sound, is really comforting to me, the singer-songwriter explains as she dives into her third album, Little Oblivions By Danielle Chelosky “I go back and forth about whether that would be the right thing to do,” singer-songwriter Julien Baker says about running away and making music in the woods. On this 10 a.m. phone call, Baker is doing what she ...

Little Oblivions Bobby Olivier | February 24, 2021 - 4:17 pm Share this article: When Julien Baker toured in support of 2017’s delicately devastating Turn Out The Lights, her audiences stood suspended in time. No cheers or sing-alongs, just several hundred bodies frozen in arrest, observing the solo songwriter as she wailed tunes of broken love, tattered faith and crumbling mental health.  While much of Baker’s new LP, Little Oblivions, hits similarly soul-ravaging n...