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Julien Baker and Torres: Send a Prayer My Way review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week
The two deep south songwriters ditch country’s rhinestones for a personal, defiant reframing of the genre’s tropes
Accusations that the pair are jumping on an ongoing trend for high-profile pivots towards a Nashville-oriented sound – which has so far involved the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey – are thus diffused. Its tasteful arrangements – big on softly weeping pedal steel and fiddle, occasional muted organ – and mid-to-slow tempos cleave to the less poppy and voguish sound of alt-country: when Tape Runs Out reaches a rocky crescendo, it feels closer to the realm of rootsy Americana than Nashville’s Music Row. Julien Baker and Torres: Sugar in the Tank – videoSend a Prayer My Way’s same-sex love songs and stark explorations of growing up in an environment freighted with religious bigotry feel less groundbreaking in the era of fellow queer country acts Orville Peck and Brandi Carlile than they once might have done.
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