With Little Oblivions, the singer-songwriter has made her most cohesive record yet. The resuscitation of a heavier sound works in Baker’s favor, while she still adds hints of the fragile gentleness that has captivated fans since her Sprained Ankle days.
Little Oblivions is a huge leap forward for Baker.
A towering achievement, Little Oblivions is devastatingly beautiful, a painful at times but still engrossing listen that doesn’t let the singer or her listeners off easily, instead pulling us along with her in her wake.
Even with booming guitars, pounding drums and soaring instrumentals, Little Oblivions feels just as intimate as Baker’s more, well, intimate albums.
Little Oblivions does not uncover any secrets toward forgiveness or redemption, but despite having endless questions, Baker never sounds hopeless.
The Tennessee songwriter has built a catalogue of songs that explore the range of coloured bruises, grey zones, and emotional fractures sustained across a lifetime, observed up close in painful detail. On her third album, the view has swung from microcosm to breathtaking panorama.
A soundtrack for those searching for hope in difficult times, particularly when the wider world has removed easy distraction from the pain.
Little Oblivions is generous and giving; it's not only a public display of personal catharsis, but also an act of collective commiseration and an invitation to heal.
Ultimately, her recent period of artistic silence and personal trials results in Julien Baker’s most masterful work to date. The expanded sonic palette reimagines the possibilities of her music and makes for Baker’s most dynamic work yet.
Blossoming her one-woman show into an overwhelming soundscape of loops and effects, Baker nonetheless remains one of the most lyrically direct and bracing acts in modern music.
If your heart was won by Julien Baker following the release of Sprained Ankle in 2015, as long as you're open to changes in instrumentation, you will not be disappointed by Little Oblivions.
On Little Oblivions, she's taken the spaces in her music that used to be empty and filled them with churning, beautiful noise.
Everything on Little Oblivions will make you feel, and it’s the catharsis we all need.
Julien Baker's third album, Little Oblivions, is a record of often intense, sometimes perilously dark, self-reflection.
With Little Oblivions, Baker upgrades her erstwhile folk style to accommodate a harder rock approach, though lyrically she’s as vulnerable as ever.
Little Oblivions shows she made the right call by stepping away to focus on herself and coming back stronger and more surefooted than before.
A fully realized artistic statement without a skippable track, even if a few songs trail off a bit toward the end — almost as if Baker knows the rush of cathartic energy has left everyone involved a little exhausted, including herself.
This album is an absolute triumph of storytelling and self-reflection which is made for small rooms to flood with tears upon hearing it.
As the long-awaited follow up to ‘Turn Out the Lights’, this album feels desperate to not retread old ground.
Unlike her earlier work, the Tennessee musician's third album features a full band, taking her anguished stories to greater heights.
On Little Oblivions, forensic self-examination is still a major element ... but the music is a whole new experience.
Filled with bolder musical choices, Little Oblivions reveals a mature, full-fledged sound that takes Baker from intimate club gig to – dare we say it? – the stadium.
This is sensitive, heartfelt and resolute rock music that shuffles its feet while looking at the stars.
Little Oblivions ... presents a richer, fuller manifestation of her talents.
On her third album, Julien Baker’s self-lacerating storytelling gets a more expansive canvas to work with. The big, full-band sound makes all the small moments of pain surreptitiously devastating.
In widening her sonic palette ... Julien Baker has given herself more scope for welcome emotional catharsis.
The Tennessee indie songwriter rewrites the book on her third record, adding drums and embracing turmoil.
Little Oblivions leaves questions unanswered and epiphanies freshly discovered and displays the beautiful moments the ugly times keep quietly hidden.
Despite the bigger sound on average ... Baker's brutal lyrical authenticity remains the main attraction.
In Oblivions, Baker has undeniably tapped into her unexplored potential—though there's also a nagging sense that these changes feel like a lateral move and not a progression.
Little Oblivions doesn’t so much feel like a step to a higher point as so much as a stumble that Baker has made to look as graceful as she can.
Little Oblivions is the sound of somebody who has been on high emotional alert for so long their batteries are starting to run down: agitated but exhausted, a little fuzzy at the edges.
The overall tone conveys something beyond Baker’s previous records, and sketches out an intriguing template for future work.
Though it boasts a grander sound than Baker's past work, Little Oblivions is laden with unremarkable indie-isms.