JULIEN BAKER’S LITTLE OBLIVIONS IS THE ARTIST’S MOST TALENTED AND DIVERSE PRODUCTION TO DATE
Credit: Alysse Gafkjen
Julien Baker soared to worldwide attention in 2015 following her wonderfully impactful and entirely raw debut release, Sprained Ankle, speaking on her struggles with mental illness, substance abuse, faith, and redemption. Baker’s sophomore release and debut on Matador Records Turn Out The Lights extended Baker’s passion taking Julien’s unique sound and songwriting a step further to reach larger mass audiences. Baker’s most recent full LP release before Little Oblivions came in the form of the boygenius EP teaming up with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus resulting in a critically acclaimed record like no other and an era-defining collaboration to stand the test of time. The Memphis-born singer/songwriter now pulls from her vast experience to create one of her most personal and talented efforts to date with her self-produced third solo album Little Oblivions.
It doesn’t take long to comprehend that Little Oblivions is quite different from her previous records. The first thing you hear on the album is the huge-sounding distorted organ and accompanying strings on the opening track and second single release “Hardline”. It feels so dramatic, gradually building and layering in cinematic-sounding textures. By the time we almost reach the two-minute mark of the song, a head-banging wall of sound hits you like a large rock symphony, unlike anything Julian has delivered before. The single was paired with an incredible stop motion music video created and shot by Joe Baughman inspired by Julian’s touring and travel memorabilia.
Little Oblivions possesses all of Julian’s natural poetic flair we’ve seen in all her works so far with an added sense of power and self-understanding that bleeds through this arguably more mature record. Throughout the album, Julian speaks on her struggles with addiction, although it feels as if she’s more in control from the substantial and hard-hitting instrumental sections to Julian’s uniting vocal delivery. The first single released on this project “Faith Healer” shares Julian’s experience whilst sending a message of hope to others through a poignant and heartfelt performance. Baker says “Put most simply, I think that 'Faith Healer' is a song about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in the human experience.”
Other highlights on the record include the soft ballad “Relative Fiction” and the rhythmically dominant “Bloodshot”. The repetitive piano line in “Relative Fiction” induces a reflective daze upon the listener to lose yourself within Julian’s poetic storytelling. Both are extremely heartfelt in lyricism with “Bloodshot” taking a percussion-focused lead opening with shuffled drums which then develop to severely delayed drum rolls that wouldn’t feel out of place featured on a Frank Ocean record. This then leads very nicely to the dryer-sounding “Ringside” where we hear Baker deliver an epic and grand-sounding alternative rock record. Once again Julian tackles issues of depression, self-abuse, faith, and forgiveness opening with the self-deprecating words, “Beat myself till I'm bloody and I'll give you a ringside seat.”
On “Favor”, the third single release of the LP, Baker teams up once again with boygenius band members Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus to speak on friendship in relation to her mental health issues and the power of unrelenting companionship and support. In regards to Julian and Little Oblivions, friend and collaborator Phoebe says “Julien is one of those people whose opinion you want to hear about everything. A true critical thinker with an ever-changing and ridiculously articulate worldview. Her music changes in the same way, and this record is my favorite thing she’s ever done. I’m sure I’ll think the same about the next one.”
Little Oblivions is unsurprisingly entirely honest and relatable, but it’s the delivery of performance and production that takes the LP to new heights making it Julian's most confident solo release to date. It’s naturally emotive and intricate in creation taking Julian from heart-wrenching indie-folk songwriter to one of the most talented songwriters and artists of our time.