“Waiting, it’s tired of me.”
Four words later and Julien Baker is holding my stomach in her fist in a strong yet comforting grip. This is the effect of her recent single, “Brittle Boned,” a powerful pop landscape that is one of the most beautiful reflections on solitude I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.
Music and poetry have always had a symbiotic relationship, and Baker’s music is the perfect expression of what one genre has to offer the other. Not unlike poetry, this is a song that insists on your full attention and presence when listening. It opens softly, grounding you with lyrics that become more abstract as the chords become louder and broader, unfolding into a climax that can only be described as a musical rendering of a much needed realization.
What’s more is that Baker is 19 and offers with her music a certain wisdom that most of us can only ever hope of having. It’s an acknowledgement of the beautiful parts of melancholy — the parts you need to make you realize good things exist too. And let me just say, her EP Sprained Ankle is one of those good things.
Beautiful song. Very powerful.