Julien Baker & Torres share yearnful new single ‘Sylvia’ and announce debut collab album ‘Send A Prayer My Way’

Julien Baker & Torres have announced their debut collab album ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ and have shared their song ‘Sylvia’. Listen below.

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The soft track features a sealing steel guitar, thumping drums and smooth harmonies as Baker and Torres yearnfully sing: “Sylvia / Don’t forget me / Sylvia / Feel like I’m missing everything,” describing the fear of having someone dear to them lose sight of them.

‘Sylvia”s accompanying black-and-white video sees the two working in a studio as well as performing the song live at a gig. Baker’s Boygenius bandmate, Lucy Dacus, makes a cameo in the visuals.

Speaking about the song in a press release, Torres explained: “The morning I went to pick up my dog Sylvia from an upstate shelter, I was at home making my coffee and I turned on WFMU and Dolly Parton’s ‘Cracker Jack’ was on. I burst into tears—it felt like the universe was telling me she was going to be mine (Sylvia was only meant to be a foster).

“I remember thinking that I’d love to write a song like that, a song that people could feel in their chest within five seconds of turning on the radio, because anyone who has ever had the honor of sharing a home with a beloved pet knows that a pet is family—they’re the best friends you could ever have.”

‘Sylvia’ follows the duo’s previously released debut track ‘Sugar In The Tank’, which saw Baker & Torres surprised fans with an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform the song live.

Both songs will be featured on their forthcoming debut collab album ‘Send A Prayer My Way’.

Set for release on April 18 via Matador, the record has been in the works since 2016 when Baker and Torres played their first gig together at Lincon Center in Chicago. At the end of the show, one singer turned to the other and said: “You know, we should make a country album.”

Elizabeth Wetmore, author of Valentine has described ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ as “a damn fine country album, written and sung in the best of the outlaw tradition—defiant, subversive, working class, and determined to wrestle not only with addiction, regret and bad decisions, but also with oppressive systems of power.”

She continued, saying: “These are songs about wrapping up a long shift and driving home bone tired, just hoping for a little weed and a quiet place to put your feet up; or falling off the wagon (again) and wondering if this time it will finally drag you under the wheels; or thinking that bad decisions are the only decisions you know how to make.”

You can pre-order and pre-save ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ here.

Elsewhere, Baker previously embarked on a three-night run at NYC’s Webster Hall back on October 5, where she debuted two new songs with Torres. However, she was forced to leave the stage mid-set the following evening after getting sick, with bandmate Lucy Dacus forced to announce that the gig would be ending prematurely.

Baker had also previously debuted two new tracks in Chicago – ‘Middle Children’, and ‘High In The Basement’. Elsewhere, she was also joined by Bartees Strange in Washington DC for a special rendition of ‘Ringside’.

Last year, she reunited with Boygenuis for their debut album ‘The Record’, which won three Grammy Awards. ‘The Record’ was crowned NME‘s Album of The Year for 2023 and scored a glowing five-star review on NME, with Erica Campbell writing: “This debut is a gorgeous testament to what can happen when you allow yourself to fully be seen.

“Though each of the album’s 12 tracks could have fit nicely on one of their personal records, their work together takes on a brighter bolder existence, enabling them to light up individually and together at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Baker and Torres’ reclamation of the country genre follows Chappell Roan doing similar, having debuted a new “lesbian anthem” country track, ‘The Giver‘ on Saturday Night Live.

The post Julien Baker & Torres share yearnful new single ‘Sylvia’ and announce debut collab album ‘Send A Prayer My Way’ appeared first on NME.