JULIEN BAKER — ‘TURN OUT THE LIGHTS’ (MATADOR)
As a matter of self-preservation, I spent a lot of 2017 consuming media that upset me as little as possible: bingewatching sitcoms and indulging in the Katy Perry-Taylor Swift beef and relishing in the thinly veiled snipes in their new albums. (Team KP for the feud, Team Snake for the music, if anyone’s keeping score.)
In the end, the magnetism of a sad-girl-with-a-guitar hooked me, like it always does. This was a good year for it. St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, Land of Talk, Samantha Crain and Nicole Atkins all made records with such gorgeous bummer songs that they made being in the dumps feel sort of glamorous for a few minutes at a time.
My favorite record of 2017, Julien Baker’s “Turn Out the Lights,” doesn’t do that. The album stuns with reverb-heavy vocal, guitar and piano-forward production meant to highlight lyrical precision. Other accompaniment feels sparse, leaving the impression of Baker — the album’s sole songwriter and producer — alone, working through some stuff.
It’s a portrait of someone just on the other side of despair, of coming to terms. In lead single, “Appointments,” Baker sings, “I think if I ruin this / I know I can live with it,” and there’s a hopefulness in that enlightenment, the kind of anger you swallow because it makes you stronger. In the tense closer “Claws in Your Back,” she comes full circle with the sentiment: “Living with demons I’ve mistaken for saints / If you keep it between us, I think they’re the same.” The record ends with her screaming, “I wanted to stay,” and then, as if completing a thought, the piano lid closes. Feelings, processing, acceptance and catharsis in 11 songs flat.
“Turn Out the Lights” is good enough for me to welcome the upset I spent so much time avoiding.
— Becky Carman, for The Oklahoman