X/Z Song Trader: "Not Strong Enough"
A Gen X Rocker Discusses Music With His Gen Z Daughter
About X/Z Song Trader: Steve is a music journalist, author and musician. Lucy is a diehard music fan and college student. They have always enjoyed a father/daughter bond over music. Each week one of them picks a song and they both share their perspectives. These are casual conversations based on musical connections. Opinions are their own. Keeping it positive.
After the first four weekly installments, we’re posting the next four every other week.
Lucy’s Song Choice: “Not Strong Enough”
One of my favorite bands of all time is boygenius, a “supergroup” composed of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus.
All three of these talented musicians are solo artists and have had successful careers throughout the past decade. Boygenius released their self-titled debut EP in 2018, consisting of six songs featuring the three artists' angelic voices.
One of the things I love most about boygenius are their vocal harmonies. A lot of their music has an operatic feel to it, with modern lyrics and music behind it. The song “Not Strong Enough,” from their 2023 debut album The Record, was by far one of my favorite songs of the past year—and I had the pleasure of seeing it live twice!
Seeing boygenius live was an emotional rollercoaster for me.
I saw them in Pomona for the first time at The Fox Theater. The second time was at a festival in Pasadena with other artists such as Clairo, Dijon, and Bartees Strange. It was amazing to experience one of my favorite bands with my best friends.
Both shows were insanely fun and wonderful, but in very different ways. The first was extremely intimate and we were pressed right up against the stage. The second time felt more like a concert in the truest sense since it was packed with everybody jumping and dancing.
Something I appreciate about boygenius is their ability to connect with their fans in a meaningful way.
For example, putting on smaller shows where they can see the entire crowd and singing songs acoustically—without any mics—and still knowing that everybody in the room can hear them.
They played their entire discography at both shows, including (obviously!) “Not Strong Enough.” Both live and on the record, the song switches off between singers, starting with Phoebe Bridgers' sad, deep-sounding voice: “Black hole opened in the kitchen…” Thus begins our journey through a song that I consider a masterpiece.
My favorite part has to be the repetition of the line “Always an angel, never a god” for an entire thirty seconds. It feels like a strong reminder that no matter how kind, giving, caring, and angelic you are, somebody will always be considered above you.
That repetition is what makes the song so powerful and what makes it truly relatable for me.
All three of these artists have a history with lyrical repetition, such as in Phoebe Bridgers’ “Waiting Room” where she repeats the phrase “Know it's for the better…” for the last two minutes of the song. There is something so striking about the melding of voices in “Not Strong Enough,” along with the blended repetition, that makes it a religious experience for me whenever I listen.
The voices of Baker, Bridgers and Dacus are reminiscent of my senior year of high school. On many occasions, my two closest friends and I would each be designated as one of the three members of boygenius and we would sing their parts of our favorite songs, trying way too hard to hit the same notes as them.
Since then, boygenius has pushed into my top 5 most-listened-to artists in the past year and I’m guessing they will remain that high for a long, long time.
I know you’ve heard this song millions of times, in the car and blasting from my room. I am curious to see what you think of (arguably) their most rock-influenced song and how it resonates with you.
Steve’s Perspective
What a tremendous song.
I’ve heard it many times before, but it’s a different experience listening on repeat and really immersing myself in the driving music and cryptic, evocative lyrics. I’ve never seen boygenius live, but it’s easy to imagine this one blowing the roof off of any venue.
The imagery of “staring at the ceiling fan and spinning out about things that haven't happened” brought to mind Pulp’s classic “Common People” (“Cause when you're laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall…”). And, of course, my ear goes straight to the line about “drag racing through the canyon singing ‘Boys Don't Cry’” since I love a lot of The Cure’s early ‘80s music…and I’m pretty sure I know what LA canyons their singing about.
I was so curious about the lyrics that I watched a video of the band explaining how the song is about mental health (“self-hatred and having a god complex” in particular, which is a pretty powerful dichotomy). Although I find that hearing an artist describe the inspiration or intent behind their lyrics runs the risk of stripping away some of the magic, I gained a lot of insight into this track and the band.
I loved catching a glimpse of the tight bond between the three of them—how goofy they are together, the way they finish each other’s thoughts, and how they crack each other up (especially Bridgers’ “too full of piss to sleep…” line). It really reminds me of you and your two closest friends from high school. If you haven’t seen it already, they go section by section with some beautiful three-part harmony moments along the way.
I totally agree with you about the power of repeating “Always an angel, never a god.”
Lyrical repetition doesn’t always work for me, but when done right it can be hypnotic or elicit a strong emotional response. In this case, it seems absolutely necessary; almost as if the whole song is building to a darkly revelatory moment. And what a tragically poetic line it is.
Another band that I think does this really well is Teenage Fanclub. I’m not sure if you’ve paid much attention to them (you might have thought I was playing Big Star!), but TFC is a band I discovered in college when I was around your age. There are a few tracks on their two early ‘90s albums, Bandwagonesque and Thirteen, that lean into repetition. I remember some critics knocking them for it, but I totally think it works on songs like “What You Do To Me” and “Norman 3.”
The fact that “Not Strong Enough” rocks is a definite plus for me (you know my tastes too well).
But when it comes to boygenius rock tracks, I think “Satanist” might be my favorite (this SNL performance is a stunner). That lead guitar riff and drum beat get me every time and I love how the music builds to that (ironic?) background scream.
That’s another song with some really interesting lyrics (“Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie, At least until you find out what a fake I am” and “If nothing can be known, then stupidity is holy”).
Thanks for choosing such a thought-provoking song. I’m definitely going to listen differently the next time I hear it.
I hope those women come back together as boygenius at some point, but I'm eager to hear their next solo records too.
I love these father daughter song discussion posts. I’m very intrigued as to how your daughter feels about the next one as it’s one of my favorite songs of the decade.