Julien Baker & Torres -- Send a Prayer My Way
Kaitlin Stevens reviews Julien Baker and Torres' collaboration Send a Prayer My Way -- a country album just waiting for the right people to make it.
It seems like everybody wants to make a country song or album these days, regardless of whether it makes sense for their sound, just to hop on a trend–think, Tate McRae collaborating with Morgan Wallen when she’s supposed to be a Britney Spears-esque pop artist (from a snowy part of Canada, no less!)–but for some artists, the proclivity to “go country” is a natural extension of their catalog and skill. Julien Baker and Torres are two such artists, so their new album, Send A Prayer My Way, hits all the right notes.
Julien and Torres’ similarities don’t start and end with their musical prowess–both artists come from the South, where they were raised in religious families. Julien hails from Tennessee, where she was raised Baptist, while Torres (real name Mackenzie Ruth Scott) was raised in a Christian family in Georgia. Being from the South meant growing up around country music, and having their own complicated journeys with religion and queerness meant they could team up to write and produce a queer country album with religious overtones, as hinted at in the album title.
Both accomplished and talented musicians in their own rights, this is the first collaboration album that Julien and Torres have released together. The 12-track record allows space for the duo to take the lead on different songs and also properly duet.
The opening track, “Dirt,” a twangy acoustic ballad, is a prime example of the yin and yang of both musician’s styles: Julien’s soft and sad harmonies blend seamlessly with Torres’ gritty, gravelly register as they take turns leading verses ripe with metaphors tackling the struggles of sobriety, a main theme of the album. That theme takes center stage in “Bottom of a Bottle,” which kicks off with Torres singing, “I care too much for my own good/I’ve got a dog in each and every fight,” echoing a sentiment expressed in their verse on “Dirt”: “All that you can take never feels like enough.”
Carving a space for themselves in a male dominated genre offered Julien and Torres not just an opportunity to reclaim a rightful space in the country world, but also the ability to reclaim agency in their upbringings and how it molded them; with tracks reflecting on the shame surrounding their sexuality. On “Tuesday,” a Torres-led track about an early relationship with a girl that pushed them into self-harm, they “exorcise” the experience for their own relief, singing: “And now I know that your shame was not mine/And I am perfect in my Lord's eyes,” touching on the spiritual clarity they’ve received since leaving the church and becoming their full self, a revelation which they spoke about in an interview on The Daily Show.
Other standout tracks include the cheerful “Sugar In The Tank,” the first single released in promoting the album in tandem with a dimly lit music video, complete with line-dancing. Playing on and reclaiming the homophobic phrase used in Southern towns, it’s a textbook country love song that also invokes the themes of self destruction Julien has become known for in her lyricism.
As students of country and dedicated musicians, Julien Baker and Torres have crafted something special on Send a Prayer My Way, earning themselves a spot amongst the legends they’ve added to their “Cuntry” playlist on Spotify, which is also worth a listen.
