EP Reviews: Boygenius, Geese, Bibio
the rest EP - boygenius
Earlier this year Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker released their long-awaited debut album as Boygenius. The album itself was, fine. It features some big highlights like Not Strong Enough but I definitely had my issues with the album which I talked about in my full review. That's why I wasn't particularly thrilled to dive into the leftovers from the album, but given the pure talent of everyone involved it felt worthwhile.
The project leads off with Black Hole a song whose instrumentation is roughly assembled in a pretty compelling way that I didn't anticipate the band experimenting with. While I think it fits Julien's fragile vocals on the first verse more than the harmonizing on the second I was still surprised to enjoy the song every time. Voyager is a pretty solid Phoebe Bridgers-led ballad that reminds me of deep-cut Punisher highlights like Halloween. Yes, it does fall victim to some of her songwriting "quirks" but ultimately I think it paints something meaningful and more importantly plays it perfectly subtle in execution.
In contrast, Afraid Of Heights is the definition of a B-side. It's clearly the type of songwriting indulgence that is worth giving a shot but I don't really think it works lyrically and it works even less sonically. With the completely empty fade out it deploys I'm surprised the song even made it onto this EP. Powers is not nearly as bad but I'm similarly not crazy about it. It's comic book themes are cute and something I didn't expect to hear on the record but ultimately it's more novel than anything else. the rest is about what I expected, a very mixed bag. While some of these songs we're clearly left off the album for a reason I also think some of them are very worthwhile. Voyager in particular could have served as a much-needed Phoebe highlight on the record. While this is mostly for the band's most die-hard fans I think there's at least something for even moderately interested parties to enjoy. 5.5/10
4D Country EP - Geese
Earlier this year Geese had an interesting breakthrough moment with an interesting indie rock record that I haven't quite made my mind up on yet. While I gear up to cover that record in full at the end of the year, the band saw fit to release some B-sides of their own. A big reason why I wanted to talk about this project is the lead single Jesse. The song is kind of a tailspin of Tom Waits-ey bar rock that is every bit as striking as its obvious inspirations. The song is good, but more than that it just kind of implored me to break it down and dissect just how strangely it all unfolds. That freakiness continues onto my favorite song on the EP Art Of War which features an absolutely stand-out vocal performance. Even beyond that though there's just so much great texture and detail to the instrumentation and the way it all unfolds. Also there's Space Race which sounds like it's from an adaptation of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory but with Archie from King Krule cast as Willy Wonka. I'll leave you to explore the sonic results of that analogy yourself.
The biggest slice of music we get on the album is the 7-minute title track. While it does have its moments, I can't help but feel like it's a bit more indulgence than it needs to be. The ritzier and sweeter energy of Killing My Borrowed Time feels similarly indulgent in the wrong ways. I do generally like the arrangements of backing vocals on Geese songs but on both of these songs they land somewhere between overwrought and corny for me. While this EP didn't quite grab me as much as the album that preceded it, I just find this band's willingness to sprint headfirst in almost any sonic direction fascinating. While I'd obviously want to like more of the experiments than I do, honestly I'm just happy to be along for the ride. 6/10
Sunbursting EP - Bibio
As he often does Bibio is following up his studio album last year with a companion EP of sorts. Generally, while the EP's have been a step back in quality from the albums he's released they've also always at east kept me engaged enough to keep returning and listening. Given that his album BIB10 last year was one of my least favorite from the project in a long time, I went into this EP skeptical. Much like the project that preceded it, the EP features a combination of Bibio's more familiar folktronica stylings with interpolations of more soul and jazz-inspired instrumentation. Shine A Light On Your Mirror is the best example of the two styles coming together even though I think the priorities kind of get lost in the weird second half of the track which stretches out the chorus obnoxiously.
Unfortunately on this album two of the marquee things I would really have to enjoy just don't click with me. The first is the guitars which are often these syrupy sweet almost nu-jazz style guitars that frankly sound wildly out of place on songs like these. It just doesn't contrast well with a lot of the more rustic instrumentation choices and even worse with the heavy use of vocal effects. Speaking of which, the effect smeared vocals all over this EP really don't do much for me either. Even when I like the refrains, which I do on quite a few tracks, the performance and effects fall short. Across this EP Bibio doesn't fix some of the issues I had with his last album, in fact, he arguably doubles down on almost all of them. His musicianship and sonic creativity are more than obvious to anybody familiar with his discography and for that reason, I'll still be paying attention when he returns to drop new music in the future. But I'm comfortable leaving pretty much all of this era in the backseat and seeing what he has to offer next. 4/10
