With Turn Out The Lights, Julien Baker returns to a much bigger stage, but with the same core of breathtaking vulnerability and resilience of debut album Sprained Ankle. From its opening moments, Turn Out The Lights throws open the doors to the world without sacrificing the intimacy that has become a hallmark of her songs.
The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in her hometown of Memphis, TN, and mixed by Craig Silvey (The National, Florence & The Machine, Arcade Fire). The evolution from Sprained Ankle’s intentionally spare production allowed greater scope and freedom for Baker, who is still the album’s sole writer and producer.
Baker explores themes such as broken relationships and the impossibility of ever truly understanding each other, but continually returns to the possibility of joy, “I don’t believe in the ‘fixing’ part, where what healing means is that you no longer get sad or experience grief or panic attacks,” Baker says. “Happy is kind of a fleeting and transient emotion. It is not a destination that you can get to by exerting enough mental effort. I believe that joy is something that you can invite into present circumstance. Whereas happiness seems to be this horizon that’s eternally getting further from you, joy is something that you can inhabit.”
The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in her hometown of Memphis, TN, and mixed by Craig Silvey (The National, Florence & The Machine, Arcade Fire). The evolution from Sprained Ankle’s intentionally spare production allowed greater scope and freedom for Baker, who is still the album’s sole writer and producer.
Baker explores themes such as broken relationships and the impossibility of ever truly understanding each other, but continually returns to the possibility of joy, “I don’t believe in the ‘fixing’ part, where what healing means is that you no longer get sad or experience grief or panic attacks,” Baker says. “Happy is kind of a fleeting and transient emotion. It is not a destination that you can get to by exerting enough mental effort. I believe that joy is something that you can invite into present circumstance. Whereas happiness seems to be this horizon that’s eternally getting further from you, joy is something that you can inhabit.”
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