Phoebe Bridgers - Lost Weekend Album Review

Not long ago, we aired a special program recorded by Phoebe Bridgers herself last week. Lost Signal aired on 89.1 WIDR FM Friday, August 14th and Saturday, August 15th, and it was a really cool opportunity to get some track-by-track commentary from her while listening to this record for the first time. It wasn’t just the first time listening to Lost Weekend either, because until that point I had never listened to a Phoebe Bridgers album before. The closest I ever got was the Boygenius record that she contributed to a few years back.

Ultimately, this was a nice way for me to be introduced to this artist’s stand-alone work, and she perceived her work in an interesting way. She had this to say about the song Other Plans: "I still don't know what it's about, (but) I have a suspicion." She said. "I have a little private meaning, but it may change so... you tell me what it's about." She also explained that the song's melody came from challenge she was given to write a melody with just one note.

Of course, I did want to actually listen to this album on my own, uninterrupted, so that I could draw my own conclusions about the project from head to toe. And what I ended up finding is that this album really is the devastating slowburn that everyone says it to be. If I had to think up something about this record that I would consider “fun”, the closest you would get is the track Lost Boys. Even there, the facade created by the melody and instrumentation falls apart when you hear the lyrics.

“Lost Boys never grow up, never go home/Lost Boys never spend their lunch money”

As you can easily deduce, much of this album revolves around loss. She writes about the people who have left her life, be it her dad on Still Standing or a romantic partner as described in Bobby or Liberty Tree. The latter is one of the songs that resonated with me most. It describes the environment of a decaying shopping mall, which is something I and many people have watched happen to their local shopping centers. It's not particularly abstract. The album as a whole isn't. The lyricism in this project is simple, but it is poetic as well. Phoebe’s writing style is one that could be taken as amateur, but I think the matter-of-factness of it all is something that feels resonant to me as a person who often says what’s on my mind with little thought to the social ramifications. It reads as a girl who has seen more than she cares to and struggles with what to make of it. The whole time she’s describing these events, her folksy-pop sound is cradling you, acting as a warm cushion to her cold words.

The performances here are solid, and the grief expressed is very real. I’m not just talking about Pheobe either, though she’s a splendid vocalist. Guest contributions from Cameron Winter and Conor Oberst on I Can’t Wait were very tasteful flourishes to a song so pivotal in the album, all while the focus stays on her and what she’s gone through. Phoebe also thanked her best friends Julian Baker and Lucy Davis for their contributions to the song Haunted. "Partly, it's about being a little bit miserable, and then going on tour with them and then feeling so alive and happy. I love them so much."

Lost Weekend is an album that makes me glad to have people around who care about me. I’ve seen and experienced loss, and through that journey you learn the value of community. This album expresses a pain that everyone goes through with respect and dignity. Details differ, but we’ve all been there. Props to her for sharing her stories so eloquently.