Review: Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers

By Zach Zollo


Phoebe Bridgers is forthright. Therefore, I’ll be so with you. 


Punisher, Bridgers’ second album, operates as a chiropractor: it snaps your back in half, but hey, you know you LOVE it. 


Since the release of her debut LP, Stranger in the Alps, in 2017, the L.A. based singer-songwriter has only strengthened her emo-tinged indie-folk through collaboration, maturation, and an exquisite “if I don’t say it NOW, when will I EVER?” attitude. In 2018, she formed boygenius with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, releasing an emotionally striking self-titled EP. In 2019, she again formed a band, this time with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame, to release the self-titled Better Oblivion Community Center LP. With each subsequent release, Bridgers distilled her lyrical talent into a dialect as clear as Grey Goose, as pungent as Four Roses, and as immediate as a TikTok. 


Punisher only continues her ascension to the stratosphere, with Bridgers delivering not only her best songwriting to date, but a hauntingly successful meditation on living with anxiety - especially in this godforsaken year. The record’s gentle melancholia, prudent movements and blissful production summons an aura, one of walking through this world numb as you pensively dissect every facet of your gloriously ephemeral existence. Save for the certified #banger “Kyoto,” a jaunt with an earworm of a horn melody, the music refuses to emanate more than campfire light, keeping the listener at a respectable distance, only revealing what’s necessary when it is time. 


But with patience at the level this album requires, the charms of Bridgers’ songs gradually unfurl into cathartic releases as grandiose as any of your indie rock heroes. The title track is one of the most poignant examples. As Bridgers sings of her adoration of the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, the music subtly swells into the chorus: “What if I told you I feel like I know you? But we never met…” Sure, Gen Z will inevitably plaster these (and many other of this album’s) lyrics under their Instagram posts, but it doesn’t take away from Bridgers’ truth - that when you relate to your idea of a person so intimately, you’re only more hurt that they’re gone. 


The truths only get truthier throughout the album. As the spooky imagery of “Halloween” transitions into the X-Files spiced “Chinese Satellite,” Bridgers’ sentiment of changing yourself for someone you love turns into a confession of her lack of faith. To have these songs paired back-to-back is particularly striking, considering their relatively dynamic shift in sound and structure, as well as how Bridgers gracefully makes herself vulnerable to the listener. “Moon Song” closes out a perfect mid-album stride. Through the imagery of a dog giving a dead bird as a “gift,” Bridgers masterfully relays the sorrow in how the love you give to someone may not be the love they need. 


Punisher reaches its pinnacle with the closing track, “I Know The End.” Beginning with the all-time great couplet, “Somewhere in Germany, but I can’t place it/Man, I hate this part of Texas,” the song begins as a humble folk ballad about returning home, to then transition into a narrative of driving up the coast to Northern California. With each ensuing lyric, the tension grows stronger; Bridgers can no longer persist in a state of anxious self-sabotage, she needs to gain full control to be fully free. Simultaneously, the crescendo captures the zeitgeist of our time: a time where our world is on fire, a sense of doom impending, a hope for a better world vanquished. It all builds up until the brew finally boils over, rewarding the listener with an orchestral descent into the apocalypse that would make Arcade Fire proud. 


While the title Punisher refers to the stereotypical music fan that won’t shut up when talking to their idol, it also is apparent that Bridgers views herself as such a person when talking to herself. She’s a woman whose constant interior battles torment her to where she grows stronger and wiser with each passing day. Even when she proves herself as the best singer-songwriter of her ilk, it doesn’t end the endless battle with anxiety she faces, in an environment that is relentlessly unforgiving. But more so than ever before, Bridgers has conquered demons, crowning herself the queen of the spirits that have haunted her. What will she do from here?


“Whatever she wants.”


BOPS: "Kyoto," "Punisher," "Halloween," "Chinese Satellite," "Moon Song," "Saviour Complex," "Graceland Too," "I Know The End"

DUDS: "DVD Menu"

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