“Without You Without Them” by boygenius
“Without You Without Them” is the opening track on Boygenius’s “The Record” which, being the shortest song on the album, also serves as it intro. This song, which came out through Interscope on 31 March 2023, was written and produced by Boygenius’s Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus.
To note, each of these ladies are musicians in their own right, with respective discographies. But they became a unit or supergroup back in 2018, and “The Record” is their first full-length project as one.
The Lyrics of “Without You Without Them”
And as with many, if not most of the other tracks found on this LP, this one can be taken as addressing a romantic interest, even if that particular dynamic is never specified. And even though “Without You Without Them” is terse and moreover the one song on the album which the ladies reportedly recorded in “a low-fidelity format”, it is also arguably the most-overt love song found therein.
For instance, the title, most simply interpreted as utilized in the lyrics, revolves around the vocalist being appreciative of not only the addressee but also “his mother” and “father” for giving birth to him, if you will. That is to say that the former is able to perceive to the latter’s attributes are not only the result of his own efforts but also his genetics and upbringing. Or phrase differently, she is appreciative of who the addressee is in a holistic as opposed to categorized sense.
As such, the narrator goes about trying to gather as much information about his life story as possible. However, she is not doing so in the name of curiosity per se. Rather, Lucy (and co.) also intends to likewise share her own, apparently for the purpose of forming a stronger, more-personal bond with the apple of her eye.
The vocalist is interested in taking their relationship to a more-meaningful level, i.e. the addressee evidently being someone she’s keen on making her own. And part of her strategy in terms of achieving that goal obviously centers on showering him – and his parents even – with praise.
