Album Review: Julien Baker’s Turn Out The Lights Asks For Life’s Meaning
What is the meaning of life? This question has plagued every single human being, and seems to be the quintessential challenge for every artist to answer. Yet, the scariest response might be that there is no meaning to life beyond the one you give it. When there are no rhymes, reasons, or even rules and histories to fall back on, humanity can feel like Julien Baker in Turn Out The Lights.
Julien Baker’s Turn Out The Lights is more than just an album; it is an open session into the fears and frays of a person trying to find out what is there role in this universe. Tracks like, “Sour Breath”, “Hurt Less”, “Televangelist”, and “Even” appeal to every moment when you made a bad choice just to feel defined, or stayed glaring at walls hoping they would begin to spell out your destiny. Baker’s voice teeters between smoky and soft to appear like a slow fog moving across her acoustics, but never clear whether they are meant to haunt or symbolize hurt. It is amazing how opposites can sound alike, and the voice annotations we associate with hurt often sound the same as the ones we place with “haunting”. This is not by chance as what is more haunting than the hurt you fee,l like in “Shadowboxing” or “Claws In Your Back” . In these songs, Baker lyrically ties together the gnawing desperation of needing to know who you are as a person and what you can offer others as a purpose. Even discussing this topic, after hearing Turn Out The Lights. makes me tear up a little. It is not often that you see someone confront something so universal, but so hidden and unspoken; every human being is scared of never knowing what their life was meant to be for themselves and others.
I remember watching Tuck Everlasting, and hearing the line “I don’t fear death, I fear an un-lived life”. Baker’s string-driven masterpiece speaks to this quote perfectly. It is a whirlpool of thoughts and emotions seeping from one massive, basic fear/quest for her life’s value. Is she enough? Are we? Who knows? Yet, if this album is an odd, music testament to finding life’s meaning, then in asking the question, Julien has found hers. Turn The Lights Out is one to turn the lights of your mind, and find a generous, gentle friend for your fear in Julien Baker. Click Here To Buy Turn Out The Lights On October 27.
