Music reviews: Julien Baker & Torres, Tunde Adebimpe, and Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson

"Send a Prayer My Way," "Thee Black Boltz," "What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow"

Tunde Adebimpe
Tunde Adebimpe's Thee Black Boltz sounds like "an unmediated transmission from the songwriter's soul"
(Image credit: NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

'Send a Prayer My Way' by Julien Baker & Torres

On their terrific new country album, Julien Baker and Mackenzie Scott "haven't just mastered the form," said Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone. "They've folded their own lives into its history." Both are queer indie-rock heroes: Baker is a member of Boygenius and Scott records as Torres. But each grew up in the South listening to and loving Patsy Cline, George Strait, and more recent country luminaries, and this set of original songs reflects those deep connections even while the two friends rewrite genre conventions to fit themselves in.

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