Photo Credit: Ybru Yildiz

Earlier this week, Julien Baker and TORRES stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a last-minute performance of their debut single, “Sugar in the Tank.” The pair followed up today, Friday, December 13, with the release of the official song via Matador Records.  

“Sugar in the Tank” is derived from the duo’s shared experience of growing up queer in the Southern region of the United States. The track honors the pair’s roots as a twangy entrance into a countrified space, tracing the origins of the genre’s traditions and symbolism that elicit a history of exclusion and, in turn, making it something uniquely their own. 

By co-opting a Western lean, Baker and TORRES unleash an idyllic capture of instrumental and lyrical playfulness, tucking banjo and guitar under a blanket of love-drenched lyrics: “I love you all the way/ To hell and back/ I love you tied up on the train tracks/ I love you clear as day/ And in the dark/ I love you sleeping on my dead left arm.”

The meld of Baker and TORRES’ musical strengths derives partly from perfected harmonizations: a love-sick forecast enhanced by the heart-breaking and sinuous cry from the pedal steel and backing band’s accompanying strings. Listen below.