It’s been more than four years since Phoebe Bridgers, Julian Baker, and Lucy Dacus teamed up for a release boy EP, they come together as singer-songwriter Voltron and leave an indelible mark on indie rock. Since then, boygenius has lived more as an idea than an entity, making a brief but sweet stop at the careers of three young women. After all, giant clusters tend not to resemble constellations but supernovae, burning brightly before fading away.
So when Boygenius announced that they would not only be returning as a band, but would be doing their first full-length album titled register On Friday, March 31st, there was reason to stop. Why risk diluting all that accumulated notoriety by submitting a version to be scrutinized and compared? Yes, fans have been clamoring for new boygenius songs for years, and collectively lose their shit when Bridgers, Baker, and Dacus team up or play a one-off combo. But isn’t that exactly the reason to stave off disappointment and ensure that you try to outdo yourself?
Less confident artists would cringe in the face of such expectations, but Puginius relishes it. register It stands as a testament to the trio’s collective self-confidence, as it unravels across 12 tracks that excite, love, and destroy.
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The record was set in January 2022 at Shangri-La in Malibu, after Bridgers, Baker and Dacus along with co-producer Kathryn Marks put in ten hours into days for a month. The creative process wasn’t a collection of odds and ends, but an attempt to make a big album, and that sense of intent shows in the track sequence.
The a cappella song “Without You Without Them” opens the record, connecting the project to folk lore and listening to the music of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, not to mention The Carter Family. He also posits the record as the work of a trio, rather than a collection of songs by three like-minded but separate musicians.
At the same time, register It covers a wide sonic space and allows the three principals to play to their creative strengths. The next three songs serve as a showcase for these strengths, as they begin with “20 Dollars”. With its muscular power chords and reverb-laden instrumental build, the song wouldn’t sound out of place on Baker’s 2021 album. A little forgetfulwhich married their confessional vocals with chest-feeling bass drums and layers of distortion. However, it sets itself apart from this album because of the added boost from Bridgers’ signature initial shriek and Dacus’ sonorous vocals.
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