Julien Baker Debuts New Songs At Nashville Popup

Julien Baker appears to be cooking something up. Five and a half years after the release of Little Oblivions, her last solo album, Baker is once again getting active outside the context of her many collaborations. Yesterday, after posting a few cryptic practice-space videos on a new Instagram, Baker announced a last-minute show in the Blue Room, part of Nashville's Third Man Records headquarters. She played that set last night, and she busted out some new songs.

Baker played the Blue Room with a full band, and this seemingly wasn't one of those no-phone shows. According to Setlist.fm, Baker devoted much of last night's set to the songs that people already know — "Turn Out The Lights," "Sprained Ankle," "Everybody Does" — as well as some of the still-unreleased songs that she first played when she went out on a solo mini-tour in 2024. But she also opened the set with an entirely new song, then played three more later on. Based on the short videos, that I've seen, we might be getting Julien Baker's post-hardcore album.

Baker came up in the hardcore underground, and she has continued to return to it over the years, collaborating with bands like Touché Amoré and Turnstile. In the brief clips that I hear in videos below, her new songs have some heavy, spaced-out dynamic guitar shit going on. Baker's solo recordings have been growing bigger and louder since her ultra-spare beginnings, and it seems like she's going further. We'll have to wait and see what happens with that, but I'm excited. Check out some videos below.