MUSIC
John Cooper Clarke and our favourite poem
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Earlier this year, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus signed up for a run of group therapy. The year ahead was freighted with the debut album release by their band Boygenius and extensive touring, so it seemed wise to guard against the dangers that had undone so many other bands before them. “Prophylactic therapy,” as Baker calls it.
As solo artists, Baker (27), Bridgers (28) and Dacus (27) inspire a level of devotion that borders on zealotry. They are queer-identifying, vocal about issues from abortion to trans rights to colonialism, while their smart, introspective and somewhat melancholic songwriting has handed each of them the peculiar charge of articulating the feelings of a generation.
As Boygenius, the “supergroup” they formed in 2018, the intensity of adoration has only magnified. Perhaps not since Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt united for 1987’s Trio has a collaboration incited such anticipation. The expectation
