It’s: The Julien Baker Face
If you’ve seen Julien Baker perform, whether it be live or watching her recorded live performances, you know exactly what face I’m referring to. And for those who don’t know “the face”, the image on the right will bring you up to speed. You see it once and immediately get flooded with your own emotions as she spills hers out to you through song. The face so full of anger, sadness, desperation, or whatever emotion she’s expressing through her music. Baker has no problem showing the audience what she’s feeling, and in doing so, she makes her audience feel those same feelings. I know I can’t help but feel angry watching Baker belt in indignation to God in “Rejoice” asking “Why did you let them leave and then make me stay?” in reference to her friends who have passed away due to unfortunate circumstances (drug use, suicide). It’s one thing to hear that frustration in her voice, but to see it too, and see it so vividly and clearly, it makes the performance so much stronger. You see the pain, the sadness, or whatever emotion it is on her face so clearly and it strikes you so intensely. Whether it causes you to think about your own, perhaps, similar feelings, or it just makes you realize how personal and sincere these songs are, she makes you think, and she makes you more intune with the emotions being expressed, and maybe even your own emotions. Julien Baker consistently uses her face and voice in ways that I haven’t seen other artists do before.
All linked songs are from Baker’s Audiotree Session performance from January 2016. This is the specific performance I am referencing throughout the review. The full session can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkot9YL3YyQ&t=1431s
There’s a reason that the thumbnail for most of the videos of Baker performing is a frame where she’s making this iconic face. It’s because that’s the part of her performance that grabs the attention of the audience every time. In other words, that’s what makes her such a talented performer. You may have never heard of Julien Baker before, but seeing a face like that in the thumbnail will most definitely pique your interest and make you think to yourself ‘I wonder what she sounds like’. Or you know Julien Baker and see this face that you’ve likely seen before and it could remind you of how emotional you felt while watching her. The editors of these videos aren’t randomly selecting these thumbnails. They know that this is something that Baker is known for, and that it will compel people to click on the video whether they’ve heard of her before or not. Because even seeing a still image of her performing with that impassioned face is striking. It makes you want to know what she’s singing about to make her so emotional.
In Baker’s Audiotree session, her performance of “Go Home”, a heavy ballad about hitting rock bottom emotionally, mentally, and physically, is heartbreaking. If you listen to the studio recording of this song, you’ll be able to tell by the lyrics just how emotional this song is, but being able to watch her perform the song, you get to see all of that emotion in her face and in her eyes. Seeing the desperation in her face as she sings the lines “I quit talking again but I know you’re still listening to see if I sleep or I pierce my skin” is so saddening. It seems like she’s talking to God again mentioning she hasn’t been talking to him much but she knows He’s still there looking out for her. Watching her croak out these lines it’s as if she’s reliving this whole experience she’s writing about right before our eyes. This allows us to see her in an exceptionally vulnerable state which feels as if you’re having a one-on-one, heart-to-heart conversation with her. Many artists might be more inclined to hide that and allow themselves to get lost in the music and the performance so they aren’t really making many facial expressions or changing their tone for certain words or lines to add emphasis or put themselves in that vulnerable state. Baker has no problem knocking down these emotion-concealing walls she’s built up around herself to let the audience in, and that draws her audience to her. As she belts out the last few heart wrenching lines of the song,
But I’ve kissed enough bathroom sinks
To make up for the lovers that never loved me
And I know my body is just dirty clothes
I’m tired of washing my hands
God, I wanna go home
the pain on her face is so apparent. And though it’s uncertain whether she’s writing about her own personal experience, or writing from the point-of-view of someone close to her, it’s clear that this memory brings her pain. At the very end of this song, the camera is right on Baker’s face, and for a second it looks like she’s about to cry (3:32). And sure, many artists have cried during or after a performance, but it’s all those additional expressions that Baker does throughout that make her performances remarkable. It’s like she’s an actor on a stage or in a film. She’s able to express the emotions of the song through not only her voice but her facial expressions and body language in the same way an actor does.
It’s not only her face that she uses to show these emotions either, she typically matches the emotion she shows in her face with the emotion she’s expressing through her voice. She will belt as loud as she can even if she’s performing alone in a small studio, like she is in this Audiotree session. A lot of artists performing in a setting like this will quiet themselves out of fear of being too loud because it’s a small, quiet studio as opposed to a larger venue with a rowdy crowd. But Baker doesn’t mind loud in this performance. She sings very emotional songs and if she didn’t show that emotion in her performance, the songs wouldn’t have that same strength and intensity. In her performance of “Something” her voice starts out quite thin in the first few verses. With her voice quiet and her head down, she sings the lyrics:
And I know you left hours ago
I still haven’t moved yet
I knew you were gone months ago
But I can’t think of anyone else
I should have said something, something, something
But I couldn’t find something to say
So I just said nothing, nothing, nothing
Sat and watched you drive away
These lyrics coupled with her actions and voice as she sings them, it’s like she’s finally realizing something that she didn’t want to admit to herself before. You don’t even need the lyrics to see that, she shows it all in her mannerisms and her voice as she’s singing these words. As she repeats some of these lines in the last few verses, this is where Baker starts belting and using that expressive face. With this change in her volume, inflection, and facial expression, it’s clear that as she’s remembering these events, accepting the things she’s done and is now angry with herself for acting the way she did in the past. She tells a story not only through her lyrics but through her performance as she sings the lyrics.
I’ve spent hours watching some of my favorite artist’s recorded performance videos on YouTube, and with that said, I’ve never seen a performance as impressive as Baker’s. And it’s not just this Audiotree performance, it’s every performance she’s done. I believe her consistency is such an important, and perhaps overlooked, factor that sets her performance style apart from other musicians. Baker performs with the same emotive intensity at every performance she gives. In addition to her being able to match her high level of expression at each performance, Baker also accomplishes so much with so little. It’s her, her guitar, and her loop pedal, and with just that she can provide one of the most emotional and thought provoking performances you’ve ever seen. Any performer who evokes that level of emotion in their audience simply by being their authentic self and performing to the best of their ability is one of the greatest performers in the world, and Julien Baker is absolutely on that list.
