"Who would I be without you?

" - boygenius and The

Mortifying Ideal of Being Known
By Alex Navarro

“Who would I be without you?” There is something wondrous, almost dream-like in

revisiting an artist you love. Whether it be a year or five, whether I play it on long road trips
or while mindlessly studying for Political Science finals- whenever I revisit an artist I
genuinely used to love, something seems to pound a little more fiercely in my chest, the
remnant of an affinity for something that can’t be put entirely into words. It’s like seeing an
old friend again.

That was my initial reaction upon learning that supergroup Boygenius (composed of Julien
Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus) would be coming back, five years after their debut
EP, releasing their first album in March of 2023: ‘the record’. I still can’t put into words just
how much hearing the news felt like a fire blazing slowly to life, knowing that a heartbeat is
still there but faint. Their initial EP was one that I would continue listening to for years,
always coming back for that vulnerability and yet stark imagery of grief and heartache that I
felt no other artist could capture. But within the five years since then, boygenius has certainly
grown more cohesive and tight-knit with each other. The sensibilities of each member shine
through so brightly throughout the album, and yet the real magic happens when they come
together as a whole, as the album intimately comes to full fruition.

The bond of friendship rings out, warm and steadfast in “True Blue” when Dacus sings “It
feels good to be known so well / I can’t hide from you like I hide from myself.” Love comes
at the cost of slowly revealing that you are imperfect, and yet Dacus’s lyricism emotionally
grips at a positive theme- spinning a tale of love as “True Blue”, steadfast and unwavering in
spite of great hardship. The opening track, ‘Without You Without Them’ with its intimate
spirit further professess this. “I want you to hear my story and be a part of it / Thank my
father before me, his mother before him / Who would I be without you, without them?”
Dacus, Bridgers, and Baker perform the song as a mesmerizing love letter how the
generations before us shape unwittingly shape who we are, how the stories we craft is a gift
of love. To be known is to be loved, and our relationships with others serve s an inheritance
of that truth.

“Satanist” as a song sounds as urgent as possible: the cacophonic instrument and heavier
tone of voice seem to leave no room for introspection or emotional cadence, and yet looking
through those curtains of heavy rock influences, Satanist is an exploration of a question that
plagues my every relationship: “Would you stay if I changed beyond all understanding?
Would you still love me if I was this screwed up up?” The metaphor of all these “negative”
associations: Satanism, Nihilism and Anarchy brings out an essential component of ‘the
record’, that love is a decision to choose someone despite everything, marveling at how
intimate you can be with someone and yet exhausted of their messy flaws. Nowhere is this
more apparent in the slow-dance extraordinaire of the bunch, “We’re in Love”, where Dacus
leads an ode for Bridgers and Baker herself (one that Baker had pushed to keep off the record
until finally coming around to it), and specifically the risk such intimacy poses. "You could
"Who would I be without you?" - boygenius and The
Mortifying Ideal of Being Known
By Alex Navarro
absolutely break my heart / That's how I know that we're in love." Baker’s own admittance to
keeping this song in is poignant- “ it’s still a learning process to know the difference between
being scrutinized and being seen.” The realization of knowing that the people who love you
most are also the ones who know where likely to strike you is mortifying, and still people
continue to love us. The song is a soft acknowledgment of a simple fact: Even in spite of all
the times we screw up, there always will be people who choose to love us unconditionally.

Overall, Baker, Bridgers, and Dacus do a fantastic job at amplifying each other’s songwriting,
enriching the album in so much more detail, emotion, and honesty than their previous work
had held. Their relationship with each other is absolutely my favorite aspect of this project-
knowing that behind each lyric and song are three women connected to each other by a sense
of friendship between them. Their friendship is the ground that crawls into each crevice and
hole made in this record, a weaving of love and of devotion, which I can only describe as
expressing love in the spaces between.

What does the record mean to me, essentially? I posed a lyric from “Without You, Without
Them” at the start of this review, that I think answers that question. Listening to this album
was like a vital reminder of how much my own friendships in my life mean to me, of not
taking certainty and companionship for granted. True Blue will not be dedicated to my best
friend, who has withstood the test of time past any hardship, who I would wait forever for as
one would any lover, just as We’re in Love will always be traced back to my university friend
group who absolutely saw me at my worst, and still loved me enough to stay and know me.
Each song is carefully crafted as a reminder of the weight of friendship and choice, and how
even if we are unable to see the good in ourselves, there are those who will remind us of our
worth, until we are able to finally turn on that light and believe it for ourselves. Truly, where
would we be without them?