Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 110 Best Albums of the 2010s, representing a varied cross-section of artists, genres, and styles. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & album index here.
JULIEN BAKER | Turn Out the Lights
Matador (2017)
Selected by Jeremy Levine
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“I wanted to stay!” The last lyric on Julien Baker’s sophomore record, sung through the highest note on her studio output thus far, brings Baker as a character into focus. While it’s a stretch to call Turn Out the Lights an optimistic record, it’s certainly a record of progress. Here, the blanket despair from her equally moving debut album Sprained Ankle (2015) is converted into a question of how one perseveres in the wake of, well, everything—lost love, mental illness, addiction—inside an expanded musical landscape. Baker is still at the center of the sparse instrumentation here, but Turn Out the Lights creates a complete sonic universe that does not merely support the vocals; everything is part of the story. Hearing her crash through the final notes of “Claw In Your Back” brings a different kind of tear to the eye, one that’s fonder and less distraught.
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