Review of “Lost Weekend”, the new great album by Phoebe Bridgers
The career of Phoebe Bridgers has taken her from a critical-favorite indie singer-songwriter to a rare pop star, including collaborations with Taylor Swift and SZA and the creation of a supergroup, boygeniusalong with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, who ended up sweeping the Grammys. To say that their third album was highly anticipated is a rather understatement.
Especially since six years had passed since the second, intense “Punisher” (20), the one that ended up turning her into a rock & roll star, as her late father tells her in a recording that he put on the album. And this is “Lost Weekend” It is, as has always been the case with its author, an absolutely personal work in which the songs try to deal with everything that has been happening in these years in which she removed herself from the focus to prepare this album that will end up making her one of the clear references of her generation.
And those things have been a breakup and a new beginning in love, becoming a star and the death of his father, with whom he had a conflictive relationship, which hovers over this coherent and cohesive album, both lyrically and musically. An album that continues to have the emotional power of his first two solo albums, but with a much richer and more careful production, “Lost Weekend” It is a more risky work and, at the same time, more personal, as if Bridgers had discovered his own sound beyond the enormous influence of Elliott Smith.
The robotic voice that opens “The Outside” is a clear warning that this album is something else, of course, as soon as he says the first words, even if they are with a completely treated voice, we are already in pure Bridgers style, this is with one of those lines that stay recorded, demonstrating that lyrically he is, possibly, the sharpest pen of his generation: “Crying in a suit and tie / But you should see the other guy / One more time for old time’s sake / I’ll watch him get carried away (Crying in a suit and tie / But you should see the other guy / One more time, for old times’ sake / I’ll just watch him get taken away.) A reference to her outfit with Boygenius and her father’s funeral. Musically it is a daring movement, although little by little more recognizable, warm and folk sounds are entering, the vocoder layers are falling, but they do not end up leaving completely.
“Lost Boys” also begins with treated vocals, giving a sense of continuity that the entire album has, but it takes very few seconds to become the most accessible and pop song on the album. You could say that it is the “Kyoto” of the album, a clear choice as the first single. The chorus, augmented by the winds, is triumphant, although the song never completely loses that bittersweet and melancholic feeling so related to its music.
In “Kill Me,” she talks about growing up and names Bobby, comedian Bo Burnham, as her new partner for the first time. More common territory, with acoustics, voice, piano touches, although other things also appear that add edge to the song, in the final big change the recognizable voice of Son-John Johnson appears for the first time, who is none other than Geese’s Cameron Winter. In that apocalyptic ending you can see how its author has improved sonically, in an album with many more layers and surprises.
And then comes one of the songs that will cause the most people to talk, “Governor’s Ball”, in which she enters with a waltz rhythm into that drama of breakups and celebrities that Taylor Swift is so good at. It is quite clear that when he says “And she can pretend to be me / Since she took my place in my bed on that stage / I have not lost any sleep” he is talking to Gracie Abrams, who is the current partner of his ex, the actor Paul Mescal. But beyond the morbidity, we are faced with a beautiful song.
“Bobby” is dedicated to Bo Burnham, so it is normal that it is one of the best songs on the album, as well as the most direct and positive, in addition to dedicating several of those phrases to him that could end up appearing on a t-shirt like “And if you didn’t like either one of my friends / I’d kill them, I’d kill them”, ending with the definitive: “Now I don’t know if I can make it tonight / But what are you doing the rest of my life? (I don’t know if I can go tonight, but what are you going to do for the rest of my life?)
“Haunted” is one of those songs that are sung outdoors by a campfire, with banjos and fiddles, and beautiful harmonies that her bandmates from Boyhenius could have done but that here sounds with a completely renewed production, while “Panorama” makes it clear that her love for ambient music has not just been a joke from an interview, but true love. Almost two minutes of its less than three are a beautiful instrumental introduction, while when her voice enters, like that of a ghost, treated and icy, the song remains a mystery.
With “Still Standing” he continues through those same sinuous places, his voice over a spectral synthesizer, until an acoustic guitar enters that gives warmth to the whole. The death of his father causes him to look back at his childhood, but instead of finding a comforting memory, he encounters something much more terrifying, images of domestic violence: “I found her bleeding over the sink But when you said sorry You were looking at me.” It is one of the highlights of an album in which the content, the lyrics, and the continent, the music, come together to form an emotionally overwhelming whole.
“Liberty Tree” will be a favorite of Bridgers’ longtime fans, carrying melodic echoes of “Graceland Too,” while the brief “Never Going Back!” is a kind of mantra that is overshadowed by a voicemail from his late father: “Being a rock star takes up a lot of your time, I guess,” says one memory, drowned out by a giggle, which intersperses with the triumphant chords buried in the background.
“I Can’t Wait” is another of the best moments of the album, bringing together two parts that could seem opposite, a more nervous first one with synths, which once again gives way to a country song with harmonica, banjo and pedal steel that breaks your heart, especially when Son-John Johnson himself appears to sing in harmony with Bridgers that “All my life side by side Hyde Jekyll Hyde finally together Hyde, together at last)”, and then returns to the first part.
In “As Above” we find the emotional heart of the album, with Bridgers once again exuding passion, I think she has never sung better than on this album and giving, almost unintentionally, what this album means: “You won’t have to believe in magic, leave it to me and I’ll make it happen.”
At the end the title song returns with the final message in which his mourning for his father is mixed (“He’s not coming back But I still live by the things he taught me Like how to forgivе when they’re not sorry”) and the new found love (“We’re gonna be alright, me and you You love me, and I won’t ever let you forget Not yet “You and me. You love me and I’m not going to let you forget it. Not yet”).
Most records that revolve around loss are content to wallow in it. Here, however, Bridgers surpasses it, and earns a conclusion on par with her best album to date. One that sounds, at the same time, new and totally its own and personal, one in which it is renewed, but in which it continues to sound totally like itself.
Sergio Ariza
