Context – Rocking Hearthstone like it’s an outfit

 

The problem with running a one man music blog is sometimes you don’t have time to get to everything.  Reading anything.  Listening to everything.  There are only so many hours in the day, only so many dice I get a chance to roll.

All of which is to say I missed Julien Baker’s Turn Out the Lights, and I’m pretty bummed about all of the wasted time we could have spent together.  Oddly enough, a student in my department found out I like emo and asked if I liked Julien Baker, and I said that I hadn’t gotten to her yet.

And now that I’m here I’m just doing my best to keep it together.  Partially because writing is hard for me these days for reasons I’m afraid to look into, mostly because the song “Appointments” gets me and probably everyone else right in the feelings you thought you buried beneath a decade’s worth of Christmas’s, bad movies, and spite.  After years of faking it, I finally know what it feels like to be in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  I pick Julien Baker, choose Julien Baker, love Julien Baker.

I love so many songs on this.  Probably all of the songs on this.  This album is extremely straight forward, with much of it being Julien with either a piano or a  guitar (just splashing in puddles of reverb to help build the ambiance and fill out the sound).  It’s a testament to her songwriting capabilities and vocal performances that she remains consistently engaging throughout the album.  If anything I was a bit sad it was over and immediately hit replay (although, full disclosure, I skipped the intro track second time around).

The hype is real.  This would easily have made my top ten, comfortably top five, and because my hyperbole is getting the better of me, it might be my favorite.  That’s a lot to put on an album after one and a half listens, but it might be true, so I’m going to admit it out loud.