PHOEBE BRIDGERS - what's the deal?

Does she do “Smelly Cat” on this album?

^ You're thinking of Phoebe Waller-Bridge

I want to love "Kyoto," but the Broken Social Scene horns (and, I guess, the "mix" generally) just do NOT do it for me. The song turns to mush at the chorus, when it should stay tight and focused. Same with "Chinese Satellite" (my 2nd-fave track), and its strings / sound effects... the production feels busy and overdone, clouding the songs rather than allowing them to shine on their own.

punisher is the album of the year

the year isn't over, but i feel like i can call it. "i know the end" feels elegiac, resigned, until about 4:35 when there is a burst of new life. not triumphant, but it's life, and when there's life there is hope.

I've been playing dead
My whole life
And I get this feeling
Whenever I feel good
It'll be the last time

some of these verses feel like things i've had memorized for years. they have "the force of inevitability"

otm

it's the album I've listened to the most this year.

i think Punisher is terrific but still (so far) think Stranger in the Alps is better. i wouldn't mind if that changes in the future, though.

The lyrics to the title track are so good, I want to quote them all.

that song is about Elliott Smith; as someone who saw probably every show Elliott Smith ever played in the Bay Are area and for whom his music was incredibly important for a few years there, I found that song really touching and effective. While my wife was in grad school with lots of people 10-12 years younger than her, several of them were pretty freaked out we'd seen him perform so many times; I wasn't even really aware he had such a strong legacy with people who weren't old enough to listen to him while he was still putting out music.

you were screaming at the evangelicals

Live from Goth Prom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zal6kbG1V4

ph*ebe bridgers flew across the atlantic during a pandemic to hook up with Connell from Normal People...messy and irresponsible but we have to stan https://t.co/ok8IjMav97

— Sophie (@insopherable) July 24, 2020

😂

This story is absolutely delightful for many reasons but particularly the specific fact of them having been outed by the Lemon Leaf Cafe in Kinsdale, County Cork, in an account that is otherwise basically just pictures of cakes.

next record is called fucklore

— traitor joe (@phoebe_bridgers) July 28, 2020

careful phoebe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9-xN6dCW4

wonder if this was shot after COVID; the ending with the empty stadium and the way people are standing apart makes me think so, but who knows.

for real, great video but the ending with the kissing and screaming into an elderly woman's face was pretty o_O considering the circumstances. along with the transatlantic trip, she seems entirely too cavalier about this pandemic thing.

pheebs hearts harry: https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/phoebe-bridgers-favorite-books.html

everyone that age does

cancelled

i think i'd lie about it in 2020

as someone that age who was very into hp as a child, people who still vocally love it were annoying long before jkr's transphobic turn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rdElxBlnwc

that was enjoyable ^

and it led me to this, which i somehow hadn't seen ... and is also enjoyable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUQzAHuJHKk

it includes fun interviews with producers Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, co-writer Marshall Vore and Nate Walcott, who played trumpet on the song.

i feel like Berg would be a good person to talk to for, like, an hourlong podcast.

Good stuff, thanks

Apparently she has struck a Boomer nerve here: https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/features/phoebe-bridgers-punisher-eric-clapton-covid/12546140

Bridgers confirms she is yet to hear from Eric Clapton, or his people, about the diss. Not that she would care.

"You know, I don't think our Venn diagrams are very connected," she says.

"I have such an Eric Clapton rant, because I think it's just extremely mediocre music, but also he's a famous racist."

"The lyric used to be, 'we hate Eric Clapton'. It's actually kind of worse now. Because it's the dead baby song, which is a heartbreaking song.

"If I were to pick an Eric Clapton song, it's up there with the ones that I actually like. So, it's kind of a lie on the record, but it sounds more poetic."

Incredible. She's the best.

hah that's v amusing

Famous Racist's Dead Baby Cookies

I immediately thought of this when I first heard the Clapton lyric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCD-F81iptk&t=2m23s

i trust everyone knows the answer to the riddle: "What's the first thing Eric Clapton did after writing 'Tears in Heaven'?"

I only know the difference between a toddler and an eightball of coke.

Phoebe Bridgers otm

Clapton’s an easy target. If she called out Morrissey, it would be more interesting.

Not really. Septuagenarians in the biz are sacred cows, and this soppy asshole's gotten by too long

moz a way more obvious target

Moz/Smiths can’t be so easily dismissed as “mediocre,” and her & her fans’ “Venn diagrams” are more connected to them. It’s easy to take down a famous racist and say, “his music sucks, too.”

To put it another way, it’s not a big deal for an artist like her to strike a “Boomer nerve” or snap at an uncool guy like Clapton. In fact, it’s expected!

And it's not like she went out of her way to do it, it's one line on the album that a reporter asked her about. (And then NME and others turned it into a clickbait headline.)

But I posted it on FB yesterday for some Friday entertainment, and stirred up a satisfactory amount of outrage. Including lots of "I'VE NEVER HEARD OF HER WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS." Fish in a barrel, but kind of fun.

That's funny. I didn't think even many Boomer Music Fans™ cared much about Clapton.

If you're a dentist with a stratocaster you sure as fuck do. Ever been to The Gear Page?

Lol. My dentist is that guy too.

I have a friend's dad like that (he collects signed guitars and mounts 'em on the wall - don't know if Slowhand is represented).

Can’t believe that this guy who has been thought of as a bore for most of the last 50 odd years is finally being taken down a peg

Lol

Got myself to the point where I don’t mind the existence of Clapton’s latter day output, just don’t care to listen to it. Just now occurred to me on another thread that Richard Thompson does what I would want someone like him to do or think he should do so I guess he is The Thinking Man’s Eric Clapton, to damn him with faint praise.

boring shelves too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFiYTs7EWsU