Boygenius Gifts Us With ‘The Rest’
Thalia Eyles
In the wake of their highly anticipated and critically acclaimed Spring album, the record, boygenius gives their fans the celestially themed and cautiously optimistic EP, the rest. the rest packs a punch with only 4 songs, 12 minutes, and an understated sound.
Photo by Harrison Whitford
The opening track, “Black Hole,” sets the tone for the release, contrasting the cosmically vast with the intensely personal. The song's first half references an article from NASA that broke the news of a black hole creating stars rather than destroying them—it’s massive. Following a stunning and dreamy instrumental break the song narrows into the intensely personal with a list of mundane details—whether they’re being created or destroyed, they just “need to hear your voice.” It’s a gentle tune that captures the realization of how small we all are in the universe, but also how that does not stop the small things from being noticed or counted. There is a profound sense of care rather than nihilism.
“Afraid of Heights” is a track led by Lucy Dacus that decries senseless recklessness with an awareness of the danger that is inherent in the lives of many who can’t always opt for safety. Dacus puts a delicate value on life and safety, simply stating “I wanna live a vibrant life but I wanna die a boring death.” Her desire for peace inherently contrasts with the cliff diver she directs her words. She assigns a level of arrogance and privilege to the needless risk-taker, reminding them that “not everybody gets the chance to live a life that isn’t dangerous.” There is a deep appreciation and gratitude for the life she lives. She describes her feelings about the other’s reckless behavior with simple but visceral imagery like the black water “eating [them] up like a sugar cube in a teacup” while she holds her breath—recalling lyrics from “Anti-Curse” from the group’s recent album. While there is a definitive note of restrained positivity, Dacus confesses that “it hurts to hope for more, it hurts to hope the future will be better than before.” This song sounds both quintessentially like Lucy Dacus and like boygenius as a whole; in the rest they each offer their distinct sounds that come together as beautifully as their harmonies.
Spacey reverberating gentle hums introduce and underscore the mesmerizing “Voyager” that intertwines the poignant “Pale Blue Dot” speech by astronomer Carl Sagan. As is touched on in track one of the EP, boygenius balances the galactic magnitude of space and the minuteness of earth itself, with being tangled up with yourself or someone else in a chaotic way. The stripped-down guitar plucks ground the personal details that juxtapose the enormity of the ‘pale blue dot’ we live on. Phoebe Bridgers recalls the similarly celestial “Moon Song” from her second album ‘Punisher.’ Where “Voyager” says “I used to believe no one could love you like I do” and “you took [the earth] from me, but I would’ve given it to you,” “Moon Song” parallels this with “you couldn’t have stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody who loved you more” and “if I could give you the moon, I would give you the moon.” The beginning of the second verse shares sentiments with “Me & My Dog” and “Cool About It,” describing being physically quite connected with someone, but still not being able to understand their thoughts. The lyrics are as open and raw as the enchanting production that leaves Phoebe’s shaky breaths before the most gut-wrenching lines.
“Powers,” the closing track, continues the outer space motif (“a body in orbit”) from the perspective of a comic-book superhero wondering if the bad things that happened to them have made them bad. The final verse of the EP finds a positive note, lauding community and friendship that Julien Baker describes as “small and daily and powerful.” She mentions “the hum of our contact, the sound of our collisions” as the consistent guitar strums that have accompanied the song come to a crescendo before ceasing entirely to give way to gorgeous horns that are haunting and almost funerary until they fade off into their reverberations like they’ve drifted off into the vacuum of space.
Though their tour is coming to a close with a final Halloween show at the Hollywood Bowl, the trio has left us with a parting gift that asserts each of their strengths as extraordinary songwriters and extends the beauty of the record in a fresh light.
Listen to the rest here!
