Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Weekend review â long-awaited return is a thrilling, daring study in dislocation
(Dead Oceans) After sweeping the Grammys and being scrutinised by the press, Bridgers deploys electronics and unsettling sound design to brilliantly evoke emotional turmoil The
(Dead Oceans) After sweeping the Grammys and being scrutinised by the press, Bridgers deploys electronics and unsettling sound design to brilliantly evoke emotional turmoil The last time Phoebe Bridgers put out a solo album was six years ago, at the height of the Covid pandemic Punisher not only ended 2020 near the top of many criticsâ best-of lists, it made the UK Top 10 and sold half a million copies in the US.
The intervening period has proved just as commercially triumphant. With the release of their debut album The Record, Boygenius the band she had formed with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker â went from a kind of supergroup for Pitchfork readers to a genuine mainstream phenomenon: the album won three Grammys. Another win, for Bridgersâ collaboration with SZA, Ghost in the Machine, meant Bridgers left the 2024 ceremony the nightâs biggest winner.
Other pop stars called on her services: she sang on Taylor Swiftâs re-recorded version of Red (and supported on the Eras tour), Lordeâs Solar Power and on Paul McCartneyâs McCartney III Imagined. But to judge by Lost Weekendâs opening track, all was not well. The Outside depicts the singer crowd-surfing at a gig in Ohio â âthey never let me hit the ground, way beyond the barricadeâ â and ending a song with her fist triumphantly raised.
Then it adds a qualifier. âBut I was on the outside, watching,â she sings, the sense of dislocation heightened by the fact that her voice is smothered by a vocoder, and the musical accompaniment â a sweet fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure â keeps vanishing into an ambient backing that sounds like static. Continue reading...
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