Not Strong Enough.

it sounds like a summer anthem. it’s actually about feeling like a fraud.

There’s a certain kind of song that sounds like a good day and turns out to be about a bad night. Not Strong Enough by boygenius is one of them: big guitars, three voices and a chorus you can’t help joining in with. But from the opening lines it’s obvious what picture it’s painting, and it lands somewhere much closer to home.

Three people who were already enough.

What makes it work is who’s singing it. Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus were all successful in their own right before they got together. They did an EP in 2018, everyone wanted more, and they went off and wrote most of the album in secret. I like how it’s shared out. Phoebe takes the first verse, Julien the second, Lucy leads the bridge, and all three meet in the chorus. Three people at the top of their game, singing about not being good enough. That’s the point.

The voice in your head.

For me, this is a song about imposter syndrome. It’s that feeling that you’ve blagged your way into wherever you are and someone’s about to find you out. The band described it as hating yourself and thinking you’re a god at the same time, and anyone who’s ever led anything will recognise that. One minute you’re sure you’ve got it all figured out. The next you’re lying awake convinced you’re useless.

It doesn’t always look like worry.

What I really love is how honestly it shows what that feeling does to you day to day. It isn’t just sadness. It’s lying there staring at the ceiling, running through things that haven’t even happened yet, the restlessness and not being able to switch off. A lot of the time it looks almost like ADHD: the scattered head, the overthinking, the not being able to settle. I think plenty of people carry that around without ever putting a name to it, and the song puts a name to it without making a big deal of it.

Flipping an old song on its head.

The title is a nod to Sheryl Crow’s Strong Enough from 1994. She asked whether a man would be strong enough for her. Here, three women sing that they’re not strong enough to be the man. There’s a wink to The Cure in there too, and the band name itself is a dig at the “boy genius” type they’d come across in the industry. It all pokes at the stuff we’re told we should be: strong, sorted, never crying. The bridge sums it up. You’re always the good one and never the great one, always nearly there.

Why it gets you.

It’s a cracking pop song first, and that’s the trick. You’re singing your head off before you realise you’re singing about feeling inadequate. Maybe that’s the best way to say it out loud. It also won two Grammys, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance, so the boygenius lot are clearly doing alright.

Stick it on loud, then go back and listen properly….. if you’ve ever felt like you’re just about getting away with it, this one’s for you.