PHENOM PHOEBE BRIDGERS
Her Second Album Takes on the End of the World
Phoebe Bridgers has had enough of America’s shit. Last week she joined other artists in releasing her new album early, offering this simple statement: “I’m not pushing the record until things go back to ‘normal’ because I don’t think they should. Here it is a little early. Abolish the police. Hope you like it.”
Punisher, the second solo album by Phoebe Bridgers, is an understated record full of very high highs and intense gut punches. After the ambient opener “DVD Menu,” the 25-year-old indie singer launches into “Garden Song,” a wistful reflection on growing up as the world changes around you. “Everything’s growing in our garden / You don’t have to know that it’s haunted,” she croons; the garden belongs to someone else, someone Bridgers hasn’t met yet. This person and their garden are pieces of an abstract idea of an adult life just out of reach.
On the more upbeat “Kyoto,” Bridgers covers crappy if blameless relationships and, in her own words, imposter syndrome over a hell of an arrangement. The song boasts horns, synth and backing vocals. She strips things down for “Punisher,” a fairytale about a not-so-fairytale romance. “What if I told you / I feel like I know you / But we never met?” Bridgers asks. She’s similarly existential in the dreamy “Halloween” and “Chinese Satellite.”
The album peaks with “Moon Song” and “Savior Complex,” the former an intimate track with heartbreakingly specific details about a lover who Bridgers could not “give the moon.” The latter continues the arc of a doomed affair with somebody both physically and emotionally unavailable; together, the two tracks are utterly devastating.
Picking up again with “ICU” (renamed “I See You” leading up to the album’s release and recently returned to its original title), Bridgers allows herself to be hopeful, if only briefly: “Right now it feels good not to stand… / Let the dystopian morning light pour in.”
The penultimate track on the album, “Graceland Too,” is a folksy country-esque song about a girl now on her own, with Elvis as the soundtrack to her fresh start. “Doesn’t know what she wants or what she’s gonna do / A rebel without a clue,” sings Bridgers. Whether or not this is a self-description, it’s a poignant way to wind down Punisher.
Bridgers’ sophomore record closes with “I Know the End,” a simple, romantic number that’s a little bit Americana and all Phoebe Bridgers. On this finale track, she starts off describing herself and her ambitions. She’s not going to die in her hometown. She’s going to see the world—she’s already sung about Kyoto—and beyond that she’s going to carve out a home for herself. Bridgers promises, “I’ll find a new place to be from / A haunted house with a picket fence / To float around and ghost my friends.”
As the music swells for only the second or third time on the entire album, backup vocals from familiar collaborators like Conor Oberst and Julien Baker join the fray and this subtle, quiet album explodes into a cacophony of chaos. Expect to hear this one played in slo-mo in the background of a superhero movie trailer sometime in the future. Expect to hear more from Phoebe Bridgers, too—end of the world or not, she’s just getting started.
