Send a Prayer My Way is the first full-length collaboration of Julien Baker and TORRES (aka Mackenzie Scott). Released via Matador Records, the record is a union of two of indie rock’s most fearless voices, and this much-anticipated album has been years in the making, ever since the pair first shared a stage at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall in 2016.
Both Baker and TORRES have carved out powerful, personal bodies of work: Baker, known for her raw, spiritual songwriting, both in her solo work and when teaming up with the melancholy super girl group Boygenius; Torres, celebrated for her unflinching lyricism and bold, genre-bending vision across 6 studio albums.
A quintessential country record, the album addresses everything from heartbreak, addiction, and reckoning with shame, to defiance, survival, and the radical act of choosing tenderness in a hard world.
“Dirt” is a classy opening, over a gentle picked guitar is a back and forth between the singers, full of tight harmonies and raw honesty. Julien sings “Spend your whole life getting clean / Just to wind up in the dirt”, proposing to the listener, what’s the point of clawing your way toward clarity, sobriety, peace—whatever ‘clean’ means—if the world around you is still broken, still cruel, still collapsing?
The essence of country is never clearer than in the second track, “The Only Marble I’ve Got Left.” A more upbeat offering than its predecessor, it bounds along with a toe-tapping groove and, like much of the album, would be right at home on a well-loved jukebox glowing beneath a neon sign in a lively roadside bar.
“Sugar In The Tank,” the debut single, opens with a breathless string of “I love you” declarations—obsessive, conflicted, from “I love you tied up on the train tracks” to “I love you now, already, and not yet” building and becoming a more frenetic until it bursts into a catchy chorus where the vocal harmonies pop, the love unwavering “I love you all of the ways that I know how”. But it’s the closing verse that leaves the deepest mark: “Sitting outside with the engine running / Just waiting on me to change”—is this love reciprocated? When they finally plead, “Come on, baby, put a little sugar in the tank,” it feels like both a cry for help and one last spark of hope.
There are further moments of magic throughout the record. No Desert Flower is delicate and showcases a softer side of TORRES’ vocals in particular, yet where the sound is gentle, the theme is one of resilience and strength.
No song hits harder than Tuesday, which combines heartbreak and biting wit, delivering one of the album’s most powerful narratives. It unpacks the fallout of a queer relationship stifled by religious shame. TORRES recounts falling for a girl named Tuesday, only to be cast aside when her partner’s mother learns of the “wrong persuasion.” The emotional toll—internalised guilt, a descent into self-harm—is laid bare in raw, unflinching lyrics. Yet the track refuses to stay in that place of pain. By the final verse, TORRES reclaims her voice, offering both closure and catharsis with a scathing closing line: “Tell your mama she can go suck an egg.” It’s a complex, layered song—blending vulnerability, righteous anger, and dark humour against a poignant and personal issue which affects so many.
Send A Prayer My Way is a striking collaboration between two artists known for their deeply raw and emotive music. On their debut record, Julien Baker and TORRES fuse their strengths to create something both powerful and intimate. It takes the listener on a journey, tackling a plethora of issues with such authenticity. Their vocal synergy is impeccable—compelling and fragile on melancholy tracks like Dirt, yet powerful and soaring in the bold, anthemic choruses of the title track. A must listen for fans of the artists, country music and unapologetic soul bearing.
