“You know me, and I’ll never forgive you for that.“
There is something so right about where Phoebe Bridgers has arrived in the music industry, becoming one of the defining voices of our generation. Since Stranger in the Alps gave us the introduction to her work, her career has blossomed through her portrayals of emotions: the mundane, uncomfortable and all-consuming. Her new album Lost Weekend is a continuation of the fluid comprehension of sadness. This project is a mirror for her to look into, describing a deep-rooted feeling of being lost, and sharing the intricacies of how her mind has coped.
Before reaching this stage, she has explored several other avenues in the music scene. Her first large-scale success was Punisher, released in 2020 garnering four Grammys, an award ceremony she’d conquer once more in 2023 together with Boygenius. After the success of singles like “Scott Street” and “I Know The End”, Bridgers took a break from her solo work and social media, leaving fans in a state of apprehension and impatience for this album.
Three of the album’s songs feature the word ‘lost’ in the title, including single “Lost Boys” which is a significant indication to where she was while writing. Bridgers has a specific talent for transporting audiences to exactly where she is; if you have never felt what she is describing, you will still have a developed understanding once the song is over. Playing to these lyrical strengths, Bridgers describes feeling stuck and in pain, the song building up and slowing down repetitively to bring that feeling to life. The track is brilliant, exciting and a tongue-in-cheek anthem for the eternally misguided.
In a similar vein, the entire album features diverse vocal techniques: whistling, cheers, echoes, choir vocals, and voicemails, alongside a kaleidoscopic range of instruments. The piano, violin, organ, and of course guitar compliment her voice to tell her story. A deeply important feature is a voicemail recording from her father in “Never Going Back”, which details the permanent life-altering changes that have come from his passing (“I know you’re busy being a rockstar… give me a call if you get the chance. I love you.”). “I Can’t Wait” is a particularly memorable experience, as lyrics like “if you leave me can you take me with you” create a raw and relatable reference to a fear of abandonment. The album is her ‘Alice in Wonderland’ experience, going deeper into new, unseen parts of her, the audience drawn into the raw ambiguity of her life.
Bridgers is no stranger to creating a world from her pain. Punisher brilliantly represented dissociation and feeling out of sync with the world. On Lost Weekend this concept continues as she uses “I am on the outside watching” to describe watching her life through a screen, specifically during her father’s funeral, feeling emotions so intense she simply had to step out of herself. This impact is so powerfully put into consumable media. A recurring character, Bobby of Twin Peaks fame, plays a role in conveying a narrative. He appears in a song named after him along with “Liberty Tree” and “Kill Me” as a highly romanticised and flawed figure in her life.
Another continuation from Punisher are the instrumentals, which take a dark direction. Despite the broad selection of sounds, Lost Weekend forms a strongly nocturnal veil which her voice beautifully compliments, drawing stories out from the darkness. Each song carries something different, always touching on electronic elements, such as the voice effects used in the opening track and the rarely-missing keyboards, all drawn together by her voice. On several songs, she creates a fiery build up to a prior calmer melody, creating a spellbinding dynamic. Alongside all of this, male vocals accompany her in multiple tracks like “I Can’t Wait”, ensuring no personality fatigue sets in.
Lost Weekend is a complete documentation of life for Bridgers whilst she’s been away. She has managed to give us a clear beginning and end, a journey that encapsulates unimaginable grief and the chaos it causes. Bridgers has always had the ability to create painfully sad lyricism, pairing that with soothing yet equally saddening instrumentals, but in comparison to her older work, this project seems to come from a significantly darker corner of her mind, revealing more intimate feelings. It is just as effortlessly successful in its mission to pull in those destined to hear what she has to say. Not once has this album deviated from the recognisable features of the ‘Phoebe Bridgers’ style with the way each song flows. Familiarity doesn’t seem like a weakness in her case, as she is continuing to demonstrate the root to her appeal whilst using her seemingly timeless skill to create an even darker, more developed sound. Her fans are used to devastating lyrics, distinctive guitarwork and moments where songs explode or implode, and Lost Weekend has it all. The album lacks stability in an essential way as textures overlap and her songwriting rules are ever-changing. With Lost Weekend, Bridgers has developed and proven her name multiple times over.
