Good morning everyone,

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, and for both those who did and those who did not enjoy your Christmases, I have something you will like – it’s my new favourite pained female singer-singwriter, Julien Baker.

Let’s start with a song and then move onto the interviews. This is the title track from her first album, Sprained Ankle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmGVIvf8Q6s

Julien Baker grew up in an intensely Christian family in Memphis, and dreaded coming out to her folks. When she came out to her dad, he made it his business to go through the Bible and show her all of the verses about love and acceptance so that she would know how loved and accepted she would always be. My own father told me this story over breakfast this week, and it was a happy little conversation, to be sharing in the kindness and love of another family far away. Here’s a great interview with her about, amongst other things, the musical influence of her faith:

“Many of my songs just come together in quatrains because that’s how a hymn goes,” she said. “Another thing that I love about hymns is that despite being antiquated modes of worship — maybe — they contain these really emotive phrases. All of my favorite hymns are admissions of faults, and finding redemption even in those.”

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/arts/music/julien-baker-turn-out-the-lights.html

That’s an interview about her second album, so have a song from that now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBu21i9aEE

A lot of her musical influences, certainly lyrically, come from emo music. You might be wondering, does she do a song in which she fantasises about being in a car crash? Julien Baker will not let you down is all I will say on the topic. Here’s an interview where she talks about emo music:

“I think of my music as being for sad alt kids with too many feelings, but then I play shows and get an audience of folks that wouldn’t normally go to shows.”

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1154-julien-baker-on-being-queer-southern-christian-and-proud/

Finally, you know I love an article by Jia Tolentino, and she reviewed the latest album, so this one is a twofer:

Punk teaches the same inversion of power as the Gospel—you learn that the coolest thing about having a microphone is turning it away from your own mouth.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-raw-devotion-of-julien-baker

I hope that you enjoy this sad music but are having a happy time. I will see you in 2018!

A xx.