Stream: Julien Baker, ‘Favor’

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Julien Baker (Photo by Alysse Gafkjen)

Singer-songwriter Julien Baker will release her third album, “Little Oblivions,” on Feb. 26, and for the latest single, her collaborators in Boygenius, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, provide backing vocals.

The first two singles, “Hardline” and “Faith Healer,” have more than lived up to the album’s hype: As a lyricist, singer and player, Baker is a formidable presence, and this release “scales her music up to larger spaces, backed by a full rock band with ringing guitars and forceful drums,” the New York Times says.

“We sang on ‘Favor’ in Nashville the same day we recorded vocals for [Bridgers’] ‘Graceland Too’ and a song of mine,” Dacus says. “That day had the same atmosphere as when we recorded the Boygenius EP. Making music was just a natural result of being together, easy as can be but also rare in a way that feels irreplicable. I love the song for its stark but sensitive picture of friendship, what it looks like to recover from broken trust. Makes me think about how truth only ever breaks what should be broken, and how love is never one of those things. I’m always honored to be brought into Julien’s life and music.”

Says Bridgers: “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.”

||| Stream: “Favor”

||| Also: Watch the videos for “Hardline” and “Faith Healer”