JULIEN BAKER WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER

I fell in love with Julien Baker in a small club with 300 strangers.

Sometimes I go to shows on a hunch. If I have heard of a band or an artist I will try and wait until the opportunity presents itself to see them live before I listen to anything they have released. Call it intuition, but I often have a feeling that the new experience will make me connect with their music so much more than I would listening through a set of headphones.

 

Such is what happened with Julien Baker. First reading her name in news releases about Brand New’s Jesse Lacey covering “Sprained Ankle” on their Fall 2016 tour, the opportunity to see Baker presented itself to me a couple of months after during her tour opening for Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Bad. As she performed, I stood and watched with such intent – a demeanor which clashed so heavily with an audience that way swaying and singing along, for it felt like I was paralyzed by the sounds and vibrations I was experiencing from this girl on stage with her guitar.

 

And it seems as though Julien Baker fever is spreading. My Twitter timeline was aflutter with reactions to seeing Baker open up for Paramore, with lead singer Hayley Williams tweeting out what I can only confirm is the absolute truth and made my inner-self go “Girl, same” because sure, you are going to be ruined but in, like, the best kind of way.

With such recognition from Williams, I have noticed more and more of my peers posting screenshots listening to the handful of songs that Baker has released. I am glad the fever is spreading, well, more like the music is spreading to haunt people like it has for me. Her music acts as a channel for the feelings we are all familiar with, especially those of us in my own corner of the world struggling with the not-knowingness of our early twenties. Isolation, depression, uncertainty, and (of course) angst. For me, though, there’s a huge component of positivity with her words. There is catharsis in the relatability of her words, and one of her latest releases, “Distant Solar Systems”, has found itself onto my daily playlist, acting as a key component to my daily soundtrack for life.

 

So please, listen to Julien Baker.