Written while she was a student at Middle Tennessee State University, Sprained Ankle is the intensely intimate solo debut of Memphis' Julien Baker. It's made of sparse guitar (and piano) tunes about breakups, substance abuse, loneliness, physical and emotional pain, and enduring, all with a wounded vocal delivery that reveres the subject matter. Released while Baker was still a teenager, Sprained Ankle was recorded at Matthew E. White's Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia but hits like a bedroom recording -- one that haunts.