![]() ![]() ![]() Obviously, these songs are about resilience, but Baker acknowledges her willingness to wallow in despair. Baker has the same kind of magnetism to get lines like, "I am so good at hurting myself", sung by a crowd of young acolytes. Baker's metaphors can also be similarly excessive and clunky at times ("I know I am a pile of filthy wreckage you will wish you never touched"). Before Chris Carrabba became a caricature of himself and an avatar for emo-as-a-Halloween-costume, there really wasn't much else like him for the hardcore kids. But considering her formative listening experiences and punk roots, by the time she reaches the high notes over an aggressively strummed, stock descending chord pattern in "Everybody Does", her most apt comparison might be Dashboard Confessional. There are traces of other current acts in her sound-the album title is inspired by a lyric ("Sprinter learning to wait/ Marathon runner, my ankles are sprained") that instantly brings up the similarly ecclesiastical bloodletting of fellow Tennessean Torres, while her thick, close-harmonizing recalls Sharon Van Etten. It's gorgeously recorded and yet, there's still the suggestion that these might've been demos -the scant overdubs of drums or harmonized vocals just drive home how lonely Baker is, that she may have meant these to eventually be full-band arrangements one day. She's a minimalist, playing bassy clusters of melodic thirds, flicking silvery harmonics, palm-muting chords. Sprained Ankle is a solo, singer-songwriter album, but very little of it would be considered "folky." She professes David Bazan, mewithoutYou's Aaron Weiss, and Ben Gibbard as idols, but her guitar playing bears more of their influence than their vocals. By the end of November, she'll be joining the tasteful-indie double bill of EL VY and Wye Oak. She recently opened for Touché Amoré, a post-hardcore band of blazing intensity and extreme devotees that was previously on 6131 Records and more indicative of the music on Baker's label. More important is how Baker operates in existential ultimatums -life or death, hope or despair, oblivion or epiphany. It cuts through the bullshit rather than piling onto it, and its clarity and honesty has instantly helped Baker reach across aisles. This voyeuristic appeal plays a minor role in distinguishing Sprained Ankle, though. Listening to it can occasionally feel like a violation of her privacy. ![]() ![]() White and Natalie Prass this year, but these one-mic and one-take songs could have easily been tracked in an MTSU bathroom. Much of the album was written in isolation- after Baker left Memphis for Middle Tennessee State University, she worked on these songs in a soundproof booth within the campus music building. It was recorded in Richmond's Spacebomb Studios, a destination du jour that birthed lusciously orchestrated countrypolitan records from Matthew E. If Julien Baker wasn't cracking something close to a smile on the cover of Sprained Ankle, I wouldn't be certain that it was meant for public consumption. ![]()
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