The supergroup boygenius — composed of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus — released its debut album “the record” on March 31, 2023. Full of masterfully written and introspective hits, the indie-rock album garnered much praise from critics and reached number four on the Billboard 200 chart. 

Six months later, on Oct. 13, 2023, the group released a four-song EP titled “the rest.” As the name implies, this EP is “the rest” of their debut album, the final additions to this project. The name of the EP is also timely, as the release comes at the end of the group’s tour this month. With this EP, the group is closing the door on one project and paving the way for a new one.

Thematically, the EP revolves around life and death — the life and death of relationships, and the life and death of human beings. All three musicians have strong songwriting abilities, resulting in a story-centric album that, much like a complex piece of poetry, can be difficult to fully grasp.

The EP opens with “Black Hole,” a callback to “Not Strong Enough” — the sixth song on “the record,” which begins with the lyrics “Black hole opened in the kitchen.” But this time, instead of the doomsday picture that was painted in “Not Strong Enough,” where the black hole represents the destructive nature of the narrator, this new black hole is creating stars, a reference to a recently discovered phenomenon where a mysterious black hole is leaving a trail of new stars in its path. Julien Baker sings, “You can see the stars, the ones / The headlines said this morning / Were bein’ spat out by what we thought / Was just destroyin’ everything for good.” This song is a look into blessings in disguise, while also exploring the forces in life that are unable to be controlled. Dacus and Bridgers sing, “It’s out of your hands, but have a safe flight.”

The second song “Afraid of Heights” is a standout on the EP. The song is centered around a relationship of Dacus’, where the other person was more prone to taking risks than she was. Lyrically, the third verse is where the song truly shines. “I never rode a motorcycle / I’ve never smoked a cigarette / I wanna live a vibrant life / But I wanna die a boring death,” Dacus sings, followed by “Not everybody gets the chance to live / A life that isn’t dangerous.” This song is a testament to a safe life: one where extreme risks are not necessary, where there is hope for the privilege of dying a peaceful death. 

The penultimate song “Voyager” details Bridgers’ feelings over the death of a relationship. Referencing the Voyager 1 spacecraft and the 1990 photograph of Earth famously called the “Pale Blue Dot,” the song returns to previous themes of space travel that Bridgers has explored. In the song “Me & My Dog,” featured on the band’s first self-titled EP, Bridgers croons, “I wish I was on a spaceship / Just me and my dog and an impossible view.” This time, however, Bridgers has landed on Earth. “Walkin’ alone in the city / Makes me feel like a man on the moon / Every small step I took was so easy,” she laments. Now that this relationship is over, there is a weight (gravity) lifted off of Bridgers’ shoulders. But Bridgers still feels isolated and agitated over this relationship. She continues, singing, “But I never imagined a dot quite as pale or as blue / You took it from me, but I would’ve given it to you.”

The final song “Powers” is the weakest of the four. Thematically, it is a search for Julien Baker’s origin. She laments, “Either way, I have been wonderin’ just how it is / I have never heard the tale of how I got my powers.” But this song is rather one-dimensional in comparison to the others. Instead of exploring the deeper meanings of the state of human life, the song just skims the surface, drawing on scientific phrases that don’t particularly advance the song in any way. In reference to a hadron collider, Baker sings, “The tail of a comet burned up in an instant, the destruction of matter / There’s no object to be seen in the supercollider / Just a light in the tunnel and whatever gets scattered.”

Sonically, the EP lacks drive. Though “Black Hole” does feature a bit of forward momentum when the drums introduced in the instrumental break, the song is the first on the EP, meaning that the rest of the EP drags. The majority of the songs have a more acoustic sound, and the rock production that was introduced in “the record” with songs like “Not Strong Enough” or “$20” is sorely missed. The rock production would allow the energy to continue throughout the entire EP, instead of dying out.

Overall, the songs on this EP — except for “Afraid of Heights” — are not an entirely necessary addition to “the record.” Though many fans will surely be grateful for any new music from boygenius, the majority of the songs fall short from the bar set by “the record.”