I would just like to start this off by saying, I am not a massive country music fan. The most country I will ever get is Taylor Swift’s first album. However, what I am is a Julien Baker fan. So, I was very excited to see what this new project with Torres would bring me as I had never previously heard of Torres so it was an even newer experience.
The first single from Send a Prayer My Way that I had heard was ‘Dirt,’ it also subsequently opens the album and what a fantastic way to do so. Torres and Baker’s voices melt together like butter and this is the best single by far off the album out of the five. With a song like ‘Sugar in the Tank’ the duo has hit the sweet spot between country and achieving a more pop sound in their music.
After a such a solid start to the album, I feel it can truly only get better. ‘Bottom of the Bottle’ name drops the album title in the song as it portrays the after-effects of a break up from a first-person point of view. I really like the use of a violins as I feel it emphasises the sombre theme of the song and also the theme of the album.
On my first listen to this album, I dismissed it entirely as I thought “this isn’t for me” but as I processed the songs and gave it another listen, the lyrics started to settle in and it finally started to click into place. From what I gather in ‘No desert flower’ the lyrics describe what it is like to try and communicate with someone who doesn’t communicate very well by saying “Good thing I’m no desert flower.” The “I” in this scenario is trying to convey to the other person that they’re here to stay and that no matter how far they push them away and treat them horribly they won’t cower at them. On a surface level, it comes across as a song about a toxic situation. The only way I could describe the guitar sound in this song very fittingly was ‘Dusty’ and ‘Dry’ which sticks with the theme of desert and the boxy sound of the drum hides in the background.
If we roll the tape back before the ‘Tape runs out’. Horrific song title pun from the album, I am sorry but it was a good one wasn’t it. ‘Downhill Both Ways’ simultaneously ruins and completes the album for me. If we get the bad points over and done with first, I felt that there was almost too much going on vocally and instrumentally as the double layering on the vocals was nice the first few times but by this point I was awaiting to hear more of either Julien Baker or Torres take over a song each. Personally, I am a sucker for some slide guitar and this song was the perfect set up for it along with its pleasing melody line.
Unfortunately, after ‘No Dead Flower’ and ‘Downhill Both Ways’ the rest of the songs blended into one and lyrically didn’t poke out to me except ‘Showdown’. The lyrics really resonate with the state of the world right now with lyrics such as “That it can’t get much worse depends on who you’re asking.”
For a country album, I have been left with a hollow feeling in my soul as this song truly cut to the core, I was waiting to get “off the wagon” but “showdown” had made me want to stay on.
Julien Baker and Torres: Send a Prayer My Way – Out 18 April 2025 (Matador)
