“Sometimes I need to hear your voice.” After indie supergroup boygenius released their first studio album back in March, they are continuing to ride their wave of success with the release of their second EP, the rest. With its soothing sounds and beautiful melodies, the rest calms the listener with its perfect tranquility.
Black Hole, the first track on the EP which continues the trend of references to space in boygenius’ music, opens with single, quick electronic notes before being accompanied by Julian Baker’s clear voice singly softly about seeing the stars during a rainstorm. Black Hole was not about a black hole at all but an allegory for the constant ups and downs of a relationship, romantic or not. The “black hole” described being sucked up and spit back out again, or one day having fun then another crying after an argument. Black Hole is about the fluctuation in the state of relationships or rather the misconceptions about, and the messiness of a person —how one second you can be devoured and overcome by someone you love, and another, feel reborn.
Black Hole and Afraid of Heights, the second track on the EP, transition from one to the other with a fan-favorite musical technique, starting with the same beat and melody that the previous song ended with. This creates a satisfying effect that makes it seem like these two songs are two parts of the same story. Afraid of Heights slows the chaos in the beat where Black Hole ended, almost fading to complete silence before picking up with a guitar. Dacus’ voice returns to this song, picking up where she left off on the last track. Afraid of Heights’ meaning is pretty clear. It’s about feelings of inadequacy and being made to feel that way specifically by someone else. In all, Afraid of Heights is a tragic song. It’s about two people who want more from one another, and one person who is being eaten alive.
The third track on the EP, Voyager starts with the same sound the previous song ended with and melodic humming by all three boygenius band members and is accompanied by the airy vocals of Phoebe Bridgers, in her first solo performance on the EP. Voyager, like many boygenius songs, is a song full of references like inside jokes between the artist and the listener, for the ones that understand them. Voyager carries a similar theme of recklessness as Afraid of Heights. In the last line of the song, Bridgers references her song from her 2020 album Punisher, Moon Song. In Voyager, Bridgers ends beautifully with the words: “But I never imagined a dot quite as pale or as blue / You took it from me, but I would’ve given it to you.”Voyager is a beautiful song, not as poetic as Black Hole and not as depressing as Afraid of Heights. The difference in the vibe and the sound of the song allows Voyager to stand out from the rest of the EP.
the rest provides comforting and soothing late-night music. You could turn out the lights and put this EP on, closing your eyes and decompressing. The name of the EP seems to reflect its origins, as it seems more like a follow-up to their early spring album, the record, or perhaps consists of songs that didn’t make it onto that album. the rest would be better if it had more of the melodies and harmonies that made them famous in their first self-titled EP, with songs like Souvenir and Ketchum, ID, addicting listeners to how each voice shined and blended in the song. But despite all this, boygenius is and will continue making amazing music that people will listen to and look forward to the days when they do.