Turn out the lights / Julien Baker.
Material type:
MusicPublisher number: OLE-1129-2 | Matador RecordsPublisher: [New York, NY] : Matador Records, [2017]Copyright date: ℗2017Description: 1 audio disc (42 min.) : CD audio, stereo ; 4 3/4 inContent type: - performed music
- audio
- audio disc
- Produced by Julien Baker.
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult CD
|
Northport Library | CD | POP/ROCK Baker, Julien | Available | 33111009082534 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Her Matador Records debut, Turn Out the Lights is the much-anticipated follow-up to the ruminating 2015 breakthrough of Tennessee singer/songwriter Julien Baker. While Sprained Ankle was recorded in a professional studio in Richmond, Virginia, it was with help from a friend who was interning there, and Baker, an 18-year-old college freshman at the time, was the sole performer. Unexpectedly -- to the songwriter -- it was picked up by 6131 Records and eventually made Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart in 2016. She recorded 2017's Turn Out the Lights at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, emerging with a sturdier sound and accompaniment that includes not only guitar and piano but also strings, woodwinds, and additional vocals. The album even opens with a brief chamber overture that both sets a melancholy tone and establishes the expanded sound. Still, it's an intimate, drums-free affair, one that emphasizes lyrics and raw emotion. The candid content and intense vocal delivery that made her reputation continue -- her lyrics dwell on personal struggles and the pursuit of hope, as on lead single "Appointments." It compromises with "Maybe it's all gonna turn out all right/And I know that it's not but I have to believe that it is." That song makes a spare anthem of "I have to believe that it is" with mainly piano and arpeggiated electric guitar. When churning, echoing guitar kicks in later on "Turn Out the Lights," it underscores full-voiced howling that reaches a level not heard on her debut. The record returns repeatedly to these swelling, anthemic moments in between more weary, half-murmured ones. At times, the smoother production seems at odds with Baker's brittle delivery, such as on "Sour Breath," which ends with a belted solo vocal. It's a heavy album regardless, with remarks like "I know what’s in my cannibal chest" and songs like "Hurt Less," a piano-and-strings entry that recounts why Baker didn't used to and then started wearing a seatbelt. Cathartic and wrecked, Turn Out the Lights is the type of album that will be uncommonly relatable to some and unbearable to others. For those who are receptive, the songwriter’s ferocious authenticity connects again. ~ Marcy Donelson
Title from disc label.
Performed by Julien Baker ; with accompanying musicians.
Produced by Julien Baker.
Recorded at Ardent Studios, Memphis, TN.
All songs written by Julien Baker.
Compact disc.
Song lyrics inserted in container.
Over -- Appointments -- Turn out the lights -- Shadowboxing -- Sour breath -- Televangelist -- Everything to help you sleep -- Happy to be here -- Hurt less -- Even -- Claws in your back.
Julien Baker's solo debut, Sprained Ankle, was one of the most widely hailed works of 2015. The album, recorded by an 18-year-old and her friend in only a few days, was a bleak yet hopeful, intimate document of staggering experiences and grace, centered entirely around Baker's voice, guitar, and unblinking honesty. The album appeared on year-end lists everywhere from NPR Music to New York Magazine's Vulture. With Turn Out the Lights, Baker returns to a much bigger stage, but with the same core of breathtaking vulnerability and resilience. From its opening moments - when her chiming, evocative melody is accompanied by swells of strings - Turn Out the Lights throws open the doors to the world without sacrificing the intimacy that has become a hallmark of her songs. The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in her hometown of Memphis, TN, and mixed by Craig Silvey (The National, Arcade Fire). This evolution from 'Sprained Ankle's intentionally spare production allows Baker - who is still the album's sole producer and writer - greater scope and freedom. Strings and woodwinds now shade the corners of her compositions, and Baker takes to piano rather than guitar on several tracks, pushing the 21-year-old Baker's work to cinematic heights of intensity.