boygenius: the rest Review

By Alexa LoSchiavo 

Supergroup boygenius released an extension of the record, the album that took the world by storm in the summer of 2023, naming it (ominously) the rest. This EP is an expansion of the world they created in the record, filled with more sullen tones, but with a quiet calm, which lurks throughout the entirety of these four songs. The connection and the ability that these three singers (Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers) have is shown in new fervor in this EP. The culmination of their voices makes it a beautiful and tangibly poignant piece of artwork. 

To start, boygenius premieres with the song, “Black Hole,” which opens with the quiet voice of Julien Baker. The writing is notably hers as well, describing the setting concisely but with a flair that only an English major like herself could add. The words are small and simple, but underneath them is a lulling and building instrumental which adds emphasis to each line before the bridge. The bridge comes after a drum solo and builds with the voices of Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers, writing these small snippets of a life or conversation but somehow creating the perfect image of holding onto someone and not wanting to let them go. This song ends with the perfect line, “Sometimes, I need to hear your voice,” and shows the ways in which we hold onto those we love. 

The next song is called “Afraid of Heights,” which has Lucy Dacus’s voice and a low strum of guitar with slight harmonizations by Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. This song is very similar to the style of her third album, Home Video, adding this confessional element that I find beautiful. In this song, she denotes the ways one can be pulled into someone’s life without wanting to be. She describes the radical acts of someone and how these radical acts don’t make you any better of a person or stronger because you can “fight” against something out of your control. She touches on the collective fear we all have in hoping for better, and how this hope does not have to be entangled with rage, but instead this quiet knowledge we all hold—that hope is innately important in our lives even if it hurts. It’s important to note, so far, in this series of songs that the chord progressions are much more simple, almost indicative of their first work on the boygenius EP. The simple chords are important, in my opinion, because they give reflection to just the words alone, adding this style of confession and closure. 

The third song is named “Voyager,” and it comes right in with the sorrowful pang of Phoebe Bridgers’s voice and the quiet hums of Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. She writes a song similar to “Revolution 0,” with this poignant reflection on the ways in which love takes from us. She talks about this love, which is so powerful, but also has a natural end because of its power. She writes: “You thought I’d never leave and I/let you believe you were right.” This line conveys the admission that this love would end because its power was too strong. Bridgers admits that the love she held had such a hold on her that she would’ve given anything to have this complete and true love. She ties the song back to ‘Moon Song’ from her second record, stating that she would’ve given this person all that she had shown in the metaphor of a pale dot of earth seen from the moon; however, this person took it from her. In “Moon Song,” she states that she would “give [them] the moon.” This subtle nod to her last album shows the ways in which this EP differs from the record—each musician is bringing more parts of themselves instead of culminating their three variations into one. 

The last song is called “Powers,” and it was written by Julien Baker. At the start of the work, she lets out a sigh, and then goes into this powerful question of how our lives came to be the way they are. This song is similar to her work in the past, with the strong strum of the guitar, adding these poignant questions of how she got her powers. Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers come in and add little elements which enhance the song, creating this powerful ending to the two works. In the end, they all harmonize,which shows that we don’t know how we have our talents or “power” but we can notice it and use it for good, as they do so themselves. It ends with a minute long trumpet solo, eloquently phasing out the last semblances of the era that was the record, the tour, and the rest. All in all, this EP is a beautiful end and feels like a sense of closure to the era that was boygenius’s first record. Its impact is far-reaching and culminates in this latest piece of work, which has touched so many lives.