10 essential albums for fans of Boygenius
In 2023, Boygenius emerged as the undeniable powerhouse of the year.
The supergroup, comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, asserted their dominance across various platforms. Their debut album, a standout release of the year, resonated widely, and their tour became the hottest ticket in town, flooding social media with content from their shows. With a succession of flawless tracks, the band’s omnipresence was justified.
Boygenius seemed to bring a whole new fan base into the indie arena. Combining their individual followers into one collective mass audience with a penchant for storytelling and emotionally rich lyricism, merged with folk-rock instrumental sensibilities and a desire for the occasional shredding guitar solo, they had a clear sound.
Their album, The Record, is a masterclass. Hits like ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘$20’ were upbeat crowd movers to scream along to, while ‘Cool About It’ and ‘True Blue’ proved to be tear-jerkers. It was everything a sensitive-souled indie fan could want in one neat package.
But listening to an album on repeat for too long sours the sound. For fans who are starting to grow a little tired of spinning The Record round, we have some suggestions for you. Whether it’s the lyricism, the heavier moments or the angelic vocals that have you hooked on Boygenius, these ten albums are essential listens to play next.
10 albums for fans of Boygenius:
Julia Jacklin – Crushing
Julia Jacklin is a must-listen for fans of Boygenius. Her vocals hold the same heavenly quality as Phoebe Bridgers’, singing with a stunning breathiness that regularly takes the listener by surprise by making way for genuine power. The same goes for the instrumental, as her softer sounds suddenly boom to life with big guitar moments and full band crescendos.
That’s especially the case on her wonderful 2019 album, Crushing. Opening with the cutting and devastating track ‘Body’, the track grapples with ownership of oneself and having that ownership exploited or violated. For fans of Boygenius’ critical look at their own fanbase in ‘Bite The Hand’, ‘Body’ is a perfect next step. Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Head Alone’ and ‘Pressure To Party’ offer something upbeat and danceable, while ‘Good Guy’ and ‘Comfort’ scratch the itch for emotional devastation.
Lomelda – M is for Empathy
For those in the market for more songs to cry to or soft sounds to soundtrack soft moments, Lomelda can provide that. The lo-fi DIY energy of her releases creates such a beautifully intimate feeling. Tracks ‘Talk’ and ‘Watering’ feel as though they’re being whispered in your ear like a secret, while ‘Bust’ and ‘Slide’ expand into something bigger without losing the closeness of the feeling.
As almost every track comes under the two-minute mark, there’s a lovely spontaneity on M is for Empathy. It feels like a little world in a neat little perfect. Providing a perfect 15-minute bitesize tour of big emotions, poetic lyrics and simple instrumentals, it’s an ideal companion to a sad moment.
Snail Mail – Valentine
Lindsey Jordan, or Snail Mail, is a true master in this arena of indie music with a huge heart. Named one of Rolling Stone’s greatest guitarists of all time, her work explodes into full colour with each riff or roaring chorus. That’s heard best on ‘Valentine’, the opening track to her sophomore album.
“As long as it’s us two / Fuck being remembered, I think I was made for you,” she sings in a liner about utter devotion. Handling her lyricism with the same storytelling abilities as Lucy Dacus but with the more classic rock instrumental inclination that soundtracks the Julien Baker-led Boygenius tracks, it’s a perfect melting pot. But Snail Mail isn’t another cookie-cutter copy of Boygenius. Her music has true originality that often wades deeper into alternative waters for those ready to explore further.
Soccer Mommy – Colour Theory
“Loving you isn’t enough / You’ll still be deep in the ground when it’s done,” Soccer Mommy sings on ‘yellow is the color of her eyes’. It’s an opus on queer devotion as the musician races ahead in the new wave of queer indie artists that includes Boygenius.
Devotion like that is a topic often covered in her work, in both the good and bad forms. ‘Your Dog’ deals with the dark side of it, singing, “I want a love that lets me breathe”, like a line from a poem. Elsewhere, ‘Circle The Drain’ calls out to love for support. In each track, Soccer Mommy navigates huge emotional sentiments with cool ease and a perfect merge of stripped-back sounds with bigger moments.
Samia – The Baby
Boygenius are great at specificity, never shying away from deeply personal images. But Samia might just be the master of it. On her 2020 debut album, The Baby, the singer seemed to peel back page after page of her diary, bringing all its various thoughts and figures into the album.
It’s a record that cares less about universal, relatable feelings but deals more with turning the specificity and nuance of day-to-day life with all its emotions into art. The Baby is beautifully centred within Samia’s own life, and through her eyes, it becomes a masterpiece of coming-of-age art. Highlights include the devastatingly tender ‘Is There Something In The Movies’ and the atmospheric opener ‘The Pool’ as it begs, “Is it too much to ask?” and spirals deeper into her inner world.
Bess Atwell – Already, Always
For those who favour Lucy Dacus as their favourite member of Boygenius, exploring Bess Atwell’s music is a must. Much like the intricate and narrative storytelling found in Boygenius tracks such as ‘We’re In Love’ and ‘True Blue’, Atwell traverses similar narrative terrain in her work.
“I slip my hands into my pockets / Lean against the wall at a Blondie tribute concert / We had that same old talk in the car / On the way over, I said I love him / I said I’m not in love,” she sings as the opening verse of ‘Co-Op’. Painting a clear and vivid scene, the entire album plays in this beautifully specific terrain. It’s so intimate, it’s magical.
Blondshell – Blondshell
But it’s not all tears and ballads. Boygenius regularly provide a real sonic punch as all three members picked up electric guitars and let loose in songs of rage, frustration, or delusional joy. All three of those things can be found on Blondshell’s knock-out debut album.
Singing about everything from getting back with a deadbeat ex or wanting a kind kiss to heavier topics of assault and sobriety, Blondshell does it all with bark and bite. The album is a skipless masterpiece of indie with roaring guitar solos and choruses, so catchy you’ll wear out the repeat button. After breaking out thanks to a TikTok of an early live performance of ‘Kiss City’, the artist proved to be a worthy mouthpiece for girlish rage, recklessness, and all the difficult emotions that sit somewhere between self-destruction and real recovery.
Better Oblivion Community Center – Better Oblivion Community Center
Boygenius isn’t the only supergroup Phoebe Bridgers has been a part of. In 2019, she teamed up with Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. A collaboration born out of mutual admiration, the pair had been building towards it for some time. After meeting in 2017, both citing each other as favourite artists, Bridgers opened for his tour while working on her debut. Oberst would feature on it as a singer on ‘Would You Rather’.
During that tour, new songs were born. Using it as a kind of brief escape from their solo careers, Better Oblivion Community Center brings something different and interesting from both artists. It also sounds totally different from song to song as it was made with no pressure, forethought or really any plan at all. But as a testament to both of their talents, it’s brilliant. ‘Dylan Thomas’ and ‘Didn’t Know What I Was In For’ stand out as real highlights. As an essential yet lesser-known part of Phoebe Bridgers’ history, it’s an underrated cut.
Quinnie – Flounder
Quinnie boomed from nothing to major notoriety within a day as her track ‘Touch Tank’ blew up on TikTok. For so many artists, that would be stifling. The pressure suddenly packs on, demanding that they retain the attention that was suddenly earned. It can often lead to a one-note album where an artist becomes too scared to try anything new. That wasn’t the case for Quinnie.
‘Touch Tank’ also wouldn’t prove to be her own viral hit. The cutting and powerful track ‘Man’ also rightfully received major attention as she sings, “No amount of nail polish could paint you a good man”, as a pointed attack on faux-feminist men.
On the whole, her album Founder is a wonderland of whimsy mixed with honest and grounded feelings. It navigates topics like sexual assault with brutal vulnerability on ‘Better’ and manages to articulate childhood nostalgia on ‘Popcorn & Juice’. Even common subjects like crushes and desire are navigated with a fresh take that is somehow both super poetic yet utterly rooted in the everyday. While holding all the emotional rawness that makes Boygenius so beautiful, Flounder is instrumentally so different. Intricately layers and full of glorious little details, it simply has to be heard to be explained and, inevitably, loved.
Chappell Roan – The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess
It would be wrong to act like there are no pop sensibilities in Boygenius’ works. In moments like ‘Not Strong Enough’ and ‘Satanist’, Boygenius command you to dance and sing along. Constantly describing them as nothing but “sad girl music” is utterly minimising and ignorant towards their motivations.
“We’re all pretty into the queer joy concept and lifestyle,” Lucy Dacus told Vogue. “I would have been happy to look up to us when I was 12, and that’s something I can be proud of,” Bridgers echoes. So much of their drive as a band is to create moments of queer visibility and soundtracks for young queer fans to know and love and make memories with.
That’s exactly what Chappell Roan is doing, too. From cheerleader chants to high-camp theatrical climaxes, The Rise and Fall Of A Midwest Princess is in the business of sheer joy. One of the most exciting pop acts around right now, Roan navigates the genre with lyrical wit and a fresh take. Her tunes are energetic without being overdone or exhaustive. The album gets you dancing but leaves room for slower moments, as ‘Casual’ and ‘Coffee’ could rival even the saddest Boygenius cuts. From start to finish, this young artists’ debut album is a treasure trove of promise that needs to be heard.
