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Julien Baker Explores the Art of Doubt on âLittle Oblivionsâ
The Tennessee singer and songwriterâs third album upends assumptions and embraces new sonic elements.
Julien Bakerâs âLittle Oblivionsâ is an unrelentingly reflective album.Credit.Alysse Gafkjen
By Lindsay Zoladz
NYT Critic s Pick
In 2015, when the young Tennessee singer and songwriter Julien Baker released her quietly lacerating debut album, âSprained Ankle,â she arrived with an origin story that flashed the false promise of condensing her in just three loaded words: Christian, queer, sober.
This narrative had a built-in redemption arc â a reassuring comfort to anyone put off by the harrowing emotional content of a record with lines like, âWish I could write songs about anything other than death.â But Baker was still a believer, having read enough radical theology to reconcile her Christianity and her sexuality. Her parents and her community had accepted her warm