Silks Up My Sleeve

Boygenius “Salt in the Wound”

There’s three singers in Boygenius, and all three are fairly successful singer-songwriters on their own, but the one who intrigues me the most is Lucy Dacus. She’s exceptionally good at conveying the disappointed feelings of a pessimist, and in writing lyrics that sound like the sort of carefully edited complaints of someone who has been having an argument with someone in their head so many times over that it’s been pared their words down to something refined and incredibly sharp. Something in her voice evokes the bright headache-inducing bright grey of overcast skies. “Salt in the Wound,” a breakup song that starts off uncertain but builds to a loud, overtly emotional climax, is a perfect vehicle for her voice. Even still, the presence of Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker is crucial – they enter as the song progresses, and seem like they’ve arrived to show Dacus support while she’s down. That solidarity makes the song feel all the more cathartic – they’re helping her through a mess, and they’re all stronger for it in the end.

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