Back in 2016, long before the current zeitgeist was in full finger-picking swing, Julien Baker – most recently known as one-third of Boygenius – and Torres, AKA indie singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott, made a pact to collaborate on a country record. That Send a Prayer My Way has finally arrived is, in some ways, fortuitous, but also puts the pair in more direct comparison with their country-loving peers. Where artists from CMAT to Beyoncé are modernising the genre, Baker and Torres’s musicality – from the pedal steel-laden shuffle of The Only Marble I’ve Got Left to the close harmonies of the rootsy Tape Runs Out – lands squarely in the traditional.

There are other ways in which the pair add more personal dimensions to the mix. As two queer writers, the female pronouns of the album’s romantic protagonists feel defiant when nestled within such a classic framework. The turbulent story of Tuesday and a relationship blocked by parental homophobia, meanwhile, finds a perfect vehicle in a genre that prioritises pained storytelling. In 2025, there is still something subversive about telling these queer narratives via one of music’s oldest traditions – even if sonically it can sometimes all feel a little country by numbers.