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Peter: I know from our behind the scenes conversations that you’re a fan of boygenius (the supergroup composed of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus). Were you familiar with Sprained Ankle prior to this?

Tyler: I was not.  I’ve heard and enjoyed some Lucy Dacus songs, and really spent some time with Phoebe B.’s two LPs, but Julien Baker has remained a mystery to me.  I love the work the three of them do together, and there’s a clip out there of Baker absolutely shredding a solo while Bridgers and Dacus bow to her, which is killer.  Her solo material, though, was a mystery to me.

Peter: I really love this album. I don’t have an actual list of my favorite albums, but if I did, this would be on it. Maybe top twenty? Top fifteen? I think it’s pretty much perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing. There are no songs I skip on this one.

Tyler: It’s a very strong, very sad collection of songs.

Peter: It is sad, but it’s so good. It’s joyous at the same time.

Tyler: I was reminded of Patty Griffin’s debut, Living With Ghosts, which I believe is a collection of demos the label thought stellar enough to release without re-recording a note.  Sprained Ankle is an album, but it’s spare and haunting in the way that the best pre-band recordings can be.

Peter: I like that Patty Griffin record a lot.

Tyler: LIstening to it, too, took me back to my days as a sensitive over-romantic teen who made time for Sarah McLachlan in between viewings of John Cusack and Richard Curtis romcoms.

That’s not to say that Baker plies such familiar emotional ground.  Her music brought back memories, I mean to say, of particularly vulnerable life moments.

Peter: Yeah, it’s very vulnerable. We should mention Julien grew up in a devout Baptist household in Memphis. She wrote these songs in college. She identified as queer and Christian at the time (I believe I read that her views on God and spirituality have since evolved). She also struggled with substance abuse as a young person. All of those factors figure heavily in the songs on Sprained Ankle.

Did you grow up in a religious household?

Tyler: I was ostensibly raised Catholic, first grade through senior year.  I attended generally weekly mass (Mass?) with my parents until i reached an age where I was allowed to opt out.  There wasn’t a terrible pressure to engage in prayer or follow strict moral codes.  A queer family friend stayed with her partner at our house more than once, and my mother has always been ardently pro-choice. There was discipline in our home, but the motivations were not religious.

Yourself?

Peter: I grew up Lutheran. We weren’t “evangelical,” but we went to church pretty much every Sunday. I went to Sunday School and Confirmation. The whole nine yards. My experience with the church was mainly positive, but I can see how it could be difficult for people. I’m not talking about sexual abuse scandals or things like that where everyone agrees it’s bad. I’m talking about more subtle considerations. Introducing the concept of God to a child is potentially problematic. Personally, I grew up with a sense of a cop in the sky, watching me. A cop who knew my thoughts. Needless to say, that part was not fun.

Tyler: I once got freaked out by the concept of heaven as “whatever you want.”  Wouldn’t we all then be facsimiles in each other’s individual afterworlds, then?  The perils of foisting complicated theological concepts on pre-adolescents.

Peter: Yeah. Exactly.

So, there’s lots of theological stuff going on here. Just an FYI, for you, the readers.

Alright, “Blacktop.”

Right off the bat, she’s talking to God.

Tyler: I’ll be damned.  Never considered that.

Peter: There are times when she could be talking to a lover or friend or God. In this case, I think it’s God.

Tyler: It’s a gorgeous song.

Peter: Absolutely. This song is based on real events. She hit a streetlamp and it fell on her car nearly killing her.

Tyler: Damn.  That’s harrowing.  Was this before she got sober?

Peter: Not sure, but she wasn’t under the influence when it happened.

Tyler: Traumatic.  That would rattle me to the core.

Peter: When she says, “I know I saw your hand/When I went out and wrapped my car/Around the streetlamp,” I think she’s seeing God as saving her there. I can’t find the quote, but I read somewhere that she felt like it meant she had more to do.

Anyway, yes! Harrowing experience! Beautiful song.

Next is “Sprained Ankle.”

“Wish I could write songs about anything other than death,” is a great opening line.

Tyler: Reminds me of Bridgers’s “Always manage to move in/Right next to cemeteries.”  These women know how to cast a dark light.

Peter: It’s a great tune. She made a video for it.

She uses a pedal to make guitar loops on a lot of these tracks which is so badass. I wish I could do that.

Tyler: It folds in some texture and sonic coloring that “Blacktop” eschews.  Got some nice “oohs,” some lovely plucking on an electric.

Peter: There isn’t a ton of “production” going on this album. Most of it is just Julien and her guitar or piano. There’s tons of space in these songs. This is at least partially out of necessity. Her friend had some free studio time and they were working quickly to get these songs recorded. But, yes, this one’s got a bit of extra texture.

The next one does as well.

“Brittle Boned.”

Tyler: With this one she really locks in this haunting, mesmerizing mood.

Peter: Seven of these songs were recorded in the initial session with her friend who had the free studio time. Two, “Brittle Boned” and “Vessels,” were recorded later with a different engineer. Both of those songs feel a little more elaborate in their production. I just noticed today that they both kind of sound like Sigur Rós. Not suggesting there’s a connection. Just something I noticed.

So, yes, haunting and mesmerizing.

I really love this one.

Tyler: She’s hitting aching jumper after aching jumper from long range. With less interesting choices, and less accomplished lyrics, this album could by “Brittle Boned” have been a snooze.  A snooze, blessedly, it is not.

Peter: Exactly! This could have been a rough go. It’s a lot of baggage for a 20-year-old to sort through, but she just nails it. She just makes so many great choices. As I said earlier, I think it’s just about perfect.

Tyler: If I had recorded an album at 20, it would have been bad.  Astounding, when an artist emerges as if fully formed at such an age.

I mean, it would’ve been bad because I can’t play anything worth a damn.  But I think you catch my meaning.

Peter: I don’t want to think about 20-year-old me recording anything for public consumption.

Tyler: I wrote e-mails called “Tyler’s Random Thoughts On Life,” the ponderous lack of self-awareness simply astounding.

That dated back to my early high school days.  Man, I shudder to imagine.

On that note, on to “Everybody Does!”

Peter: Great tune! Spoiler alert, I like all these songs!

“You’re gonna run when you find out who I am,” is such a great line.

Tyler: You mean there’s no ill-conceived cover of “Cherry Oh Baby?”

Peter: I think the deluxe edition has her covering “Informer” by Snow.

Do you know that song?

Tyler: Do I!

Talk about some bad, bad, bad stuff.

Peter: I had the cassette single.

A licky boom-boom down.

Tyler: Gross.

Peter: She double-tracks her vocals in spots here. She doesn’t do it too often on this record, but when she does it’s really effective.

Tyler: Our next track, “Good News,” comes on like an anthem.

Peter: I love this record so much.

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