September 22nd marks the four-year anniversary of the release of Phoebe Bridgers’ debut album, Stranger in the Alps, and it is stunning to think of the speed with which the LA-based artist has become a household name. There is perhaps no more perfect example of an artist creating themselves and rising out of the west coast on the sheer strength of everything they put into the world.
The appeal of Stranger in the Alps was immediate and widespread, carving out her own identity while simultaneously generating mass appeal. Bridgers’ pointed lyrics and ruthless self-examination, interwoven with piano and acoustic guitar, and perked up the ears of just about everyone, from kids who grew up on the emo-tinged folk of Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith, to pop fans who found familiarity in songs like ‘Motion Sickness’, a song replete with pointed lyrical daggers about a toxic relationship, and which still perennially goes viral on TikTok.
Bridgers’ second record, Punisher, was released at the height of the pandemic, and in those uncertain days, it was a boon to remember just how moving and affecting music can be. A fixture in virtually every year-end list in 2020 and arguably one of the best albums of the last five years, it showcased everything that was excellent about Stranger in the Alps and elevated it to even higher levels. Bridgers took new sonic detours like ‘Graceland Too’ and packed even more lyrical weight than before, with songs like breakout single ‘Kyoto’ concealing beneath its gorgeous melody heartbreaking accounts of an absentee father and an unrequited desire to belong.
In addition to her myriad collaborations with her forerunners like Conor Oberst, contemporaries in Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and up-and-comers such as MUNA and Bartees Strange, Bridgers has also founded her own record label, Saddest Factory, an imprint of Dead Oceans. And most triumphantly of all, she’s returning to the road this fall for an extensive tour behind Punisher, eager to don the now-iconic skeleton suit from the album’s mystical cover and bring the catharsis of the album to everyone who has long awaited it. Punisher closes with ‘I Know the End’, where triumphant horns crescendo into a wall of screams – I think everyone who’s listened is waiting for that moment most of all.
Check out Phoebe Bridgers’ tour dates below.
