Few artists have had a musical trajectory quite like Julien Baker‘s.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter first found viral fame with her 2015 debut, “Sprained Ankle,” before teaming up with fellow musicians Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus in 2018 to form the critically acclaimed supergroup boygenius.
Julien is preparing to embark on a huge fall tour to close out 2026. We’ve gathered 52 of her all-time greatest lyrics below for your Instagram captioning convenience.
For being tired of inaction:
“Nobody does anything anymore. I wanna do something now.”
-“High In The Basement”
(Photo credit: Christina McKinney)
For rising way before the sun:
“I’m awake at a quarter to four.”
-“High In The Basement”
For when you’re willing to follow them anywhere:
“Where you go, I’ll go.”
-“High In The Basement”
For making your actions speak louder than words:
“Wanna show you the shape of my heart, not have to explain it.”
-“High In The Basement”
For wanting to look on the bright side of life:
“Up late, whistling in the dark trying to change my tune.”
-“High In The Basement”
For acting against your best interests:
“What I want, I do the opposite of.”
-“High In The Basement”
For realizing love can be lonely:
“Love is isolation.”
-“High In The Basement”
For when they’re there but not present:
“Where do you go when you disappear?”
-“High In The Basement”
For needing fresh perspective:
“How do I reframe it?”
-“High In The Basement”
For feeling unnoticed:
“Lonely middle children in the shadow of the taller buildings.”
-“Middle Children”
For trying again each time you fail:
“But I wanna get it right.”
-“Middle Children”
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For realizing you had the wrong motivations:
“I think the decision that I made would be different if I had been operating out of love, but I was moving out of fear.”
-“Middle Children”
For wondering if they’ll continue to choose you:
“Could you see the future, would you change your answer or would you still stick it out with me?”
-“Middle Children”
For confronting numbness:
“You tried, and nothin’ came. You couldn’t laugh, you couldn’t cry.”
-“Lathe”
For not being the best listener:
“I said, ‘What the hell you gotta scream at me for?’ You said, ‘You aren’t gonna listen any other way.'”
-“Dirt”
For when it’s a struggle every day:
“If you ask how I’ve been doing, I won’t lie. More than half the time, I’m only skating by.”
-“Dirt”
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For never knowing what comes next:
“Sometimes it makes me feel better. Sometimes it makes me feel worse.”
-“Dirt”
For working to maintain your sanity:
“I’ll always do my best to hold on tight to the only marble I’ve got left.”
-“The Only Marble I’ve Got Left”
For embracing your own weirdness:
“The longer I live, the stranger I get.”
-“The Only Marble I’ve Got Left”
For when you’d do anything for them:
“I love you all the way to hell and back.”
-“Sugar In The Tank”
For loving hard, even if you don’t always get it right:
“I love you all of the ways that I know how. Been wrong too many times to count.”
-“Sugar In The Tank”
For wishing you could go to them:
“I hate just watching through the window when you pull up and I’m still thinking I should stay home.”
-“Sugar In The Tank”
For yearning for someone you can’t have:
“I’m missing you more every day. I can’t keep the wantin’ you at bay.”
-“Bottom of a Bottle”
For clinging to hope:
“I don’t wanna be cynical anymore.”
-“Downhill Both Ways”
For knowing you can change for the better:
“Could’ve been anything I want. There’s nothing that I’m gonna stay.”
-“Downhill Both Ways”
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For being more than willing to put up with tears:
“Good thing I’m no desert flower. I can take more than a little rain.”
-“No Desert Flower”
For promising to persist:
“If the going’s tough, I will not cower and all the passing yеars won’t wash me away.”
-“No Desert Flower”
For struggling to deceive them:
“How come you can always tell when I am lying?”
-“Tape Runs Out”
For feeling inadequate:
“No one likes to hear that they ain’t good enough, least when they already know it’s true.”
-“Tape Runs Out”
For craving joy and goodness in your life:
“It makes sense to want to feel good. It makes sense to want not to feel.”
-“Off the Wagon”
For confusing happiness with danger:
“Mistook another songbird for a cop car passing.”
-“Showdown”
For wondering if you’re making the right choices:
“I am afraid I’m doing it the wrong way.”
-“Sylvia”
For having zero plans of going out:
“I’m staying in tonight.”
-“Appointments”
For when it feels like you’re living life on hard mode:
“Say you wish you could find some way to help not to be so hard on myself, so why is it easy for everyone else?”
-“Turn Out the Lights”
For deeply caring about how someone feels about you:
“It’s not easy when what you think of me is important.”
-“Good News”
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For finding comfort in good company:
“Because when I’m with you, I don’t have to think about myself.”
-“Hurt Less”
For not being sure what to pray for:
“When I rejoice and complain I never know what to say.”
-“Rejoice”
(Photo credit: Vincent Krichau)
For wishing you were wired differently:
“If I could do what I want, I would become an electrician. I’d climb inside my ears and I would rearrange the wires in my brain.”
-“Happy to Be Here”
For self-sabotaging:
“I think if I ruin this that I know I can live with it.”
-“Appointments”
For wasting your time in a toxic relationship:
“Oh, the harder I swim, the faster I sink.”
-“Sour Breath”
For regretting staying silent:
“I should have said something, something, something, but I couldn’t find something to say.”
-“Something”
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For feeling the loneliest at night:
“When I turn out the lights, there’s no one left between myself and me.”
-“Turn Out the Lights”
For being confident they won’t stick around:
“You’re gonna run. It’s alright, everybody does.”
-“Everybody Does”
For when even your optimism is pessimistic:
“Maybe it’s all gonna turn out all right. Oh, I know that it’s not, but I have to believe that it is.”
-“Appointments”
For when you haven’t been able to speak honestly:
“I always wanna tell the truth, but it never seems like the right time.”
-“Favor”
For hoping for a better mood down the road:
“I’m not always like this. There’s always tomorrow, I guess.”
-“Turn Out the Lights”
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For when you’re not sure you can be different:
“I know I should be being optimistic but I’m doubtful I can change.”
-“Happy to Be Here”
For hurtling toward your inescapable destiny:
“I’m telling my own fortune, something I cannot escape. I can see where this is going but I can’t find the brake.”
-“Hardline”
For when your predictions never come true:
“Nothing turns out like I pictured it.”
-“Appointments”
For missing them so bad you can’t sleep:
“Keep myself awake at night ’cause whenever I close my eyes I’m chasing your tail lights.”
-“Something”
For when it feels like you can’t hold on to anything nice:
“Give me everything good and I’ll throw it away.”
-“Rejoice”
For struggling to do the one thing you’re good at:
“A marathon runner, my ankles are sprained.”
-“Sprained Ankle”
For more captioning inspiration, click HERE to discover our favorite lyrics off Pale Waves’ Smitten to use on your next post.
