{"id":291,"date":"2020-11-23T01:25:23","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/?p=291"},"modified":"2020-12-05T14:15:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T14:15:58","slug":"why-do-you-always-find-yourself-feeling-emotional-and-introspective-after-watching-julien-baker-perform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/2020\/11\/23\/why-do-you-always-find-yourself-feeling-emotional-and-introspective-after-watching-julien-baker-perform\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are We Always So Sad After Watching Julien Baker Perform?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s: The Julien Baker Face<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Julien
Cover art for Red Door\/Conversation Piece<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve seen Julien Baker perform, whether it be live or watching her recorded live performances, you know exactly what face I\u2019m referring to. And for those who don\u2019t know \u201cthe face\u201d, 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\u2019s expressing through her music. Baker has no problem showing the audience what she\u2019s feeling, and in doing so, she makes her audience feel those same feelings. I know I can\u2019t help but feel angry watching Baker belt in indignation to God in \u201cRejoice<\/a>\u201d asking \u201cWhy 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\u2019s 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\u2019t seen other artists do before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All linked songs are from Baker\u2019s 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<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a reason that the thumbnail for most of the videos of Baker performing is a frame where she\u2019s making this iconic face. It\u2019s because that\u2019s the part of her performance that grabs the attention of the audience every time. In other words, that\u2019s 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 \u2018I wonder what she sounds like\u2019<\/em>. Or you know Julien Baker and see this face that you\u2019ve likely seen before and it could remind you of how emotional you felt while watching her. The editors of these videos aren\u2019t 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s singing about to make her so emotional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Baker\u2019s Audiotree session, her performance of \u201cGo Home<\/a>\u201d, a heavy ballad about hitting rock bottom emotionally, mentally, and physically, is heartbreaking. If you listen to the studio recording of this song, you\u2019ll 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 \u201cI quit talking again<\/a> but I know you’re still listening to see if I sleep or I pierce my skin\u201d is so saddening. It seems like she\u2019s talking to God again mentioning she hasn\u2019t been talking to him much but she knows He\u2019s still there looking out for her. Watching her croak out these lines it’s as if she\u2019s reliving this whole experience she\u2019s writing about right before our eyes. This allows us to see her in an exceptionally vulnerable state which feels as if you\u2019re 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I’ve kissed enough bathroom sinks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make up for the lovers that never loved me<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I know my body is just dirty clothes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m tired of washing my hands<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God, I wanna go home<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the pain on her face is so apparent. And though it\u2019s uncertain whether she\u2019s writing about her own personal experience, or writing from the point-of-view of someone close to her, it\u2019s clear that this memory brings her pain. At the very end of this song, the camera is right on Baker\u2019s face, and for a second it looks like she\u2019s about to cry (3:32). And sure, many artists have cried during or after a performance, but it\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s expressing through her voice. She will belt as loud as she can even if she\u2019s 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\u2019t mind loud in this performance. She sings very emotional songs and if she didn\u2019t show that emotion in her performance, the songs wouldn\u2019t have that same strength and intensity. In her performance of \u201cSomething<\/a>\u201d her voice starts out quite thin in the first few verses. With her voice quiet and her head down, she sings the lyrics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I know you left hours ago<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still haven’t moved yet<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew you were gone months ago<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I can’t think of anyone else<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should have said something, something, something<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I couldn’t find something to say<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I just said nothing, nothing, nothing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sat and watched you drive away<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These lyrics coupled with her actions and voice as she sings them, it\u2019s like she\u2019s finally realizing something that she didn\u2019t want to admit to herself before. You don\u2019t even need the lyrics to see that, she shows it all in her mannerisms and her voice as she\u2019s 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\u2019s clear that as she\u2019s remembering these events, accepting the things she\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent hours watching some of my favorite artist\u2019s recorded performance videos on YouTube, and with that said, I\u2019ve never seen a performance as impressive as Baker\u2019s. And it\u2019s not just this Audiotree performance, it\u2019s every <\/em>performance she\u2019s 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<\/em> much with so<\/em> little. It\u2019s her, her guitar, and her loop pedal, and with just that she can provide one of the most emotional and thought provoking performances you\u2019ve 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s: The Julien Baker Face If you\u2019ve seen Julien Baker perform, whether it be live or watching her recorded live performances, you know exactly what face I\u2019m referring to. And for those who don\u2019t know \u201cthe face\u201d, the image on the right will bring you up to speed. You see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71,45],"tags":[69,21],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-music","tag-indie","tag-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/art-of-the-review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}