Review: Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher
Phoebe Bridgers is a rising star with much potential to sober up the lairy mainstream crowd. Once a “Stranger in the Alp” (pun intended), she went full solo and made some noise in the backseat with heavily-playlisted singles like “Motion Sickness” and “Smoke Signals.” Witty and raw in describing how her writing prowess goes, she also has an eye for aesthetics that feel timeless and cult-worthy. Seen on the cover of her sophomore record “Punisher” is an eerie image of Bridgers in the skeleton onesie looking into a beam of red light up above, flashing outright anticipation of recurring themes of death and supernaturalism in the eleven-chapter story. These deliver stunning results. “Punisher” ticks all the boxes of modern-day poetry and has you embarking on an emotional journey — sometimes ambivalent yet easy to feel sympathy for — with no warning.
Setting the tone with the haunting “DVD Menu,” just like a nostalgic background music loop on an actual DVD menu, it gracefully fades into “Garden Song.” Brimful of coming-of-age scenes scattering around the freezing floor, they are glazed or lost. In the end, Bridgers picks up all the pieces together, singing “I have everything I wanted.” It is a song about redemption in spite of all the bad and regrets that you have got. Similarly, on the horn-prominent indie-rock banger “Kyoto,” which is surmised to be about the toxic relationship with her father, Bridgers has two contradictory feelings towards him. “I wanted to see the world / Through your eyes until it happened / Then I changed my mind / Guess I lied,” she sings. Bridgers is known for her dark humour, and in this super catchy tune she spares no exception: “I’m gonna kill you / If you don’t beat me to it.” The track “Halloween,” a festive shout-out to a past relationship, draws another obvious example: “I hate living by the hospital / The sirens go all night / I used to joke that if they woke you up / Somebody better be dying.”
Bridgers places hope and despair on a centerfold in downbeat tearjerkers like “ICU,” “Chinese Satellite,” and “Moon Song.” The latter, specifically, houses the most glass-cutting, evocative lyrics on “Punisher”: “You couldn’t have / Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody / Who loves you more / So I will wait for the next time you want me / Like a dog with a bird at your door.” Likewise, “Savior Complex” and “Graceland Too” juxtapose damage with repair, keeping you warm like a therapeutic hug. “All the skeletons you hide / Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine,” Bridgers sings on “Savior Complex” as a classic guitar strum gently consorts with a sorrowful string arrangement.
The title track finds Bridgers paying tribute to Elliot Smith, her biggest inspiration in music. Playing some crazed stalker who is “a copycat killer with a chemical cut,” the fact that this is not bluntly basked in a straight-up fangirl mood makes it sound novel and more appreciative. Yet, the most unexpectedly intriguing moment evinces on “I Know the End,” an all-said-into-summary closure, where Bridgers reloads the stream of consciousness as she imagines an imminent apocalypse. “The end is here,” she sings before letting out a barrage of hardcore punk screams, to sign her existence off.
Although “Punisher” does not thrive, sonically or lyrically, in its originality, Phoebe Bridgers herself is at her own league. It is such a stripped output with rather an intricate input. And that is what makes this record intelligent and super-effective.
96/100
