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PO Now: Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights


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3 hours ago, tape said:

This is what she had at the show on Saturday:

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Plus there was vinyl of both albums (orange for Turn Out the Lights, purple and dark blue splatter for Sprained Ankle) and the 7". Also the Sprained Ankle cassette and the Turn Out the Lights CD.

There was also a tote bag with that round tiger art from the white shirt on the right, and a tan baseball cap. There may have also been an enamel pin but I can't recall for sure.

 

Of course, there's obviously no guarantee that this will also be the same merch for a European tour. For example, they only had one of the shirts available in my size, which makes some sense as it was the penultimate night of the tour. Now, these same things might be restocked for Europe, or there might be totally new stuff. Who knows?

That's a fox, not a tiger...:P

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8 minutes ago, cantdance said:

The fox design looks better in person I think. Love the shirt! Baker was absolutely amazing live

I mean, I actually do really like it. They didn't have it in my size though. And for that matter, they were sold out of them entirely by the time Half Waif was done (I went at the beginning of the show to snag that purple vinyl, but I had to go back later for Petal merch because Kiley was selling it herself and didn't go the table until the Half Waif-Julien intermission, and the fox shirt was gone then).

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Pretty good. My clear copy sounds great at least. I think I was just hoping for some more progression from the last album to this one, especially after the calls of AOTY in this thread. Solid album, but I think it got overhyped for me and I was expecting too much.

 

I think that Sprained Ankle seems raw, and honest, and this album comes off more as kind of...whiny? It just doesn't have the same urgency, or pleading tone.

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32 minutes ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

Pretty good. My clear copy sounds great at least. I think I was just hoping for some more progression from the last album to this one, especially after the calls of AOTY in this thread. Solid album, but I think it got overhyped for me and I was expecting too much.

 

I think that Sprained Ankle seems raw, and honest, and this album comes off more as kind of...whiny? It just doesn't have the same urgency, or pleading tone.

That's why hype is bullshit and should always be taken with a grain of salt.  Everyone's mileage varies with different albums, but I've noticed that nothing good ever comes from accepting hyperbole in full.  Especially when it's knee-jerk.

 

That being said, I feel similarly about the album on initial listen.  I think it starts off strong and dare I say even more "realized" than anything she's done... but the back half sort of drags for me.  I think maybe Sour Breath just raises the bar to high, because it's arguably the best thing she's written.  I think it's a strong sophomore album but I'm not swooning over it quite yet.

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11 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

That's why hype is bullshit and should always be taken with a grain of salt.  Everyone's mileage varies with different albums, but I've noticed that nothing good ever comes from accepting hyperbole in full.  Especially when it's knee-jerk.

 

That being said, I feel similarly about the album on initial listen.  I think it starts off strong and dare I say even more "realized" than anything she's done... but the back half sort of drags for me.  I think maybe Sour Breath just raises the bar to high, because it's arguably the best thing she's written.  I think it's a strong sophomore album but I'm not swooning over it quite yet.

Sour Breath is solid, and the first track is great with all the instrumentation going on, but yeah, by no means a bad album. I'd even call it solidly good, but it just doesn't do it for me the way Sprained Ankle did. I listened to that shit on repeat for a while.

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3 hours ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

Sour Breath is solid, and the first track is great with all the instrumentation going on, but yeah, by no means a bad album. I'd even call it solidly good, but it just doesn't do it for me the way Sprained Ankle did. I listened to that shit on repeat for a while.

Like you said, I think she sacrificed a bit of the rawness and sincerity for a sound that's more refined and dynamic.  Which there's nothing wrong with – 3 carbon copies of Sprained would've gotten old, for sure.  I have to commend her for mixing things up a bit.  But there's nothing wrong with saying that the new sound doesn't have quite the same impact or "umph".  That's a fair statement to me, anyway.

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To be fair to Julien, I don't know how you can replicate Sprained Ankle. I don't mean musically, I mean that she was a new voice with a first album that just took everybody by surprise.

 

You can't come literally out of nowhere more than once.

 

Personally, I'm trying not to measure Turn Out the Lights against Sprained Ankle for exactly that reason. That album resonated with me in such a deep, emotional way that it's unfair to compare anything to it. That said, I think it's really good.

Edited by tape
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Alright, so I was definitely late to the Julien party but this album is beautiful. I was hesitant to listen because there has been so much hype around this album, and sometimes that heavy expectation can really affect how you listen but I'm glad I did. As someone who had never heard of her, or her voice, or her solo-guitar trademark before, the album really hits hard. Her songwriting is reminiscent of a lot of early/mid-2000s indie stuff that helped me get into music - and that style isn't really around anymore. It's nice to return to that state of mind, especially with the subject matter on this album. 

But, I can totally understand everyone's criticism of the album being more of the "same". After hearing her earlier work, it's easy to compare the two albums and think there's very little change going on but I still don't think that takes away from the impact of TOTL. The production is also top-notch on this one, it sounds incredible. 

 

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On 10/31/2017 at 9:28 AM, dynabcn said:

Please, can you take a picture of the merch stand when you go to that show? I'll be seeing her in Barcelona in a few weeks.

 

Thank god I could get the 6131 first limited edition of this album. Now its so overpriced :S

DN4Iq3CWsAAtKRj.jpg:large

 

vinyl didnt have any stickers, so most likely a regular one (also got my ltd clear for less than 25euro)(<-steep price)
 

about her performance: it was amazing!

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