Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers Writes and Drops Bombs

Oh, Phoebe Bridgers! Entirely captivating. Planet Earth's favorite young folk-rocker and singer-songwriter. Mine too.

With perfect grace, Phoebe gives emotionally intelligent reflections on unseemly relationships, traumas, and faint hopes. Each line may be so relatably mundane yet builds into something so effortlessly transcendental. I suppose that's the vein of an irreproachable storyteller. Throughout the entire listen, my heart aches, and at times, it's nearly too much to bear; but Phoebe's subtlest wit and candid humor buoys me through. How does she do it?

As in Stranger In The Alps, Phoebe's stunning vocals play across a haunting backdrop, but even more so here. The instrumentation and orchestration are bare, unique, and mysterious. In Punisher (and everywhere else), the layering of her voice sends me through palpitations. Ethan Gruska, Tony Berg, and Mike Mogis return as contributing producers and goodness me they make quite a team. Better Oblivion Community Center collaborator Conor Oberst and her fellow boygenius conspirators (Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus) and some man with a deep, deep voice contribute to various tracks as well as the climactic end. From the eery opening instrumental of "DVD Scene" to the horrifying breathing in the last few seconds of "I Know The End," it's a beautiful, heavy listen -- what a mood.

Ugh, Phoebe Fucking Bridgers (dotcom).