In a music landscape increasingly shaped by fleeting trends and algorithmic predictability, Send A Prayer My Way feels like a seismic shift. The long-awaited full-length collaboration between Julien Baker and TORRES (Mackenzie Scott) is not just an album—it’s a moment. Released via Matador Records, this record brings together two of indie music’s most emotionally fearless voices to craft a country-inflected work of staggering vulnerability, unflinching honesty, and sonic beauty.
Their creative bond began nearly a decade ago, when Baker and TORRES first shared a stage in Chicago’s Lincoln Hall back in 2016. Since then, both artists have independently built reputations as powerhouse songwriters—Baker with her deeply spiritual, bruised lyricism (both solo and as part of supergroup boygenius), and TORRES through her bold, genre-defying six-album run, marked by poetic ferocity and magnetic performances. Send A Prayer My Way represents the fusion of these two potent energies—an album steeped in ache, but also in tenderness, defiance, and survival.
At its core, the record embraces classic country storytelling—but it’s country as filtered through queerness, shame, addiction, and recovery. It’s steeped in twang and texture, yes, but also in bruised knees and quiet prayers muttered in the dark.
It opens with “Dirt,” a deceptively delicate song with fingerpicked guitar and call-and-response vocals that unravel into something raw and confronting. Baker sings, “Spend your whole life getting clean / Just to wind up in the dirt,” posing a stark, almost nihilistic question: what’s the point of personal redemption in a world that refuses to heal with you? The answer doesn’t come, but the mood is set—introspective, questioning, and hauntingly honest.
Next comes “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left,” which shifts the pace with a buoyant, almost rollicking rhythm. It’s the kind of song you’d imagine playing on a jukebox in a smoky roadside dive, while someone weeps quietly into a whiskey. But beneath the bounce lies the album’s recurring theme—trying to hold onto softness in a world that asks you to harden up.
If there’s a pop sensibility on this record, it lives inside “Sugar In The Tank,” the debut single and a masterclass in tension and release. It begins with an obsessive flurry of “I love you” confessions—equal parts playful and manic—before erupting into a harmony-laden chorus that sticks like honey. Yet it’s the final verse that punches the hardest: “Sitting outside with the engine running / Just waiting on me to change.” The plea “Come on, baby, put a little sugar in the tank” becomes both a cry for emotional sustenance and a tender request to keep love alive, no matter how battered it might be.
Among the album’s quieter triumphs is “No Desert Flower,” a shimmering showcase for TORRES’ gentler vocal tones. It’s a sonic lullaby, but the lyrics speak of survival, rootedness, and the strength required to bloom in hostile environments. It’s one of the album’s emotional peaks—not by shouting, but by whispering.
And then there’s “Tuesday”—arguably the record’s centerpiece and most devastating offering. TORRES narrates a queer love story shattered by religious condemnation, crafting a ballad equal parts heartbreak and fury. The details are deeply personal—a partner’s mother learning of “the wrong persuasion,” the resulting spiral into shame and self-harm. Yet TORRES refuses to stay in that darkness. By the song’s conclusion, she delivers a line soaked in both humor and rage: “Tell your mama she can go suck an egg.” It’s catharsis by way of confrontation, and it’s unforgettable.
Throughout Send A Prayer My Way, the chemistry between Baker and TORRES is nothing short of electric. Their vocal interplay moves from ethereal to explosive, from fragile confessions to full-throated anthems. And while their styles are distinct—Baker’s quiet desperation meeting TORRES’ commanding presence—they find a shared language in emotional authenticity. The title track, with its sweeping chorus and evocative storytelling, captures this fusion perfectly, a battle cry of heartbreak and hope.
This isn’t just a collaboration—it’s a confluence. Two artists, both known for their deep dives into the human condition, have come together not to outshine each other, but to amplify each other’s truths. Send A Prayer My Way is a record of contradictions—tender yet tough, soft yet sharp, country yet experimental. It’s made for long drives, for lonely nights, for moments of clarity that come after the storm.
For fans of either artist—or for anyone who’s ever tried to hold onto love in a world that’s crumbling—this album is essential listening. In fusing their voices, Julien Baker and TORRES have crafted something timeless, aching, and fiercely alive.
