Bridgers Over Troubled Waters
“If you were a waiting room, I would never see a doctor
I would sit there with my first aid kit and bleed”
Phoebe Bridgers turns 26 in August, but you’d think she was a time-tested veteran judging by her angelic vocals and poetic lyrics. Hailing from Los Angeles, Bridgers made her mark as a singer/songwriter with 2017’s, Stranger in the Alps. In this debut album, she takes you to beautiful yet devastating experiences like love in a life of homelessness in “Smoke Signals“ and through death’s grief in “Funeral.“
On top of her wondrous and beautiful solo work, it is clear that Phoebe Bridgers plays well with others. She has collaborated with the likes of Lord Huron, Matt Berninger, The 1975, et al, but I would be remiss to deny telling you about the two incredible supergroups she is in.
In 2018, Bridgers teamed up with fellow singer/songwriters Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus to form boygenius. The trio released their self-titled EP in October of that year, and I can only hope we get more beautiful music from them. These three talented women are as similar as they are different, and their combined efforts are a gift.
Three months later, Bridgers teamed up with the infamous Conor Oberst for an album as Better Oblivion Community Center. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Oberst, so I was slow to warm up to this new collaboration. What a huge mistake that was! Their voices frolic around each other perfectly, like if Dancing with the Stars featured dancers paired with... dancers. This album is truly fantastic, and easily one of the best releases from 2019.
Bridgers has since gone back to her solo roots and gave us the fantastic new single “Garden Song“ in February of this year. At first listen, I thought she snagged the late great Leonard Cohen’s vocals, but it’s actually her tour manager! She had the following to say about him in an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1:
“He’s 6-foot-7. He’s a Dutch man named Jeroen. I realized he had the voice of an angel when he was singing Mitski with me in the van and he was two octaves below me, and I was like, ‘You sound like a Dutch Matt Berninger from the National.’”
Berninger, Cohen, or Jeroen... I am on board!
Since the release of “Garden Song“, Bridgers gave us the stellarly upbeat single “Kyoto,“ and announced her upcoming 2nd solo album, Punisher, that will be released on June 19, 2020.
I am all for getting as much exposure to her talents as possible, so sign me up for solo tunes, supergroups, and more collaborations!
-Josh
Latest single, “Kyoto“
A GORGEOUS live version of one of my favorites, “Waiting Room“
The boygenius Tiny Desk Concert Performance
