PHOEBE BRIDGERS - what's the deal?

"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

that's pretty funny

Great stuff, thanks!

wonder if she regrets covering an SKM song now.

still a good song and a very good cover of it

wonder if she regrets covering an SKM song now.

I'm expecting "Bridgers pulls SKM cover off of streaming services" to be a headline within a week or two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bOigld3D1k

i really like this performance, i think this version of "kyoto" is better than the album version

it's a wonderful performance of I Know The End also, the fan-videos are a nice touch for climax

I agree about “Kyoto,” but she seems bored with her own material.

don't agree with this ^

i think she is a relatively reserved performer who also probably feels somewhat awkward / conflicted doing all these online sessions to promote the album. in interviews and other performances, she seems more engaged

idk, even if she is bored with it, maybe that means she'll write new songs sooner or something

(agree the fan videos were a really nice touch on I Know The End, which is absolutely one of my favorite songs of the year)

i shouldn't say "i don't agree" ... more like "i read it differently" :)

the red rocks performance was incredible, look it up

yeah that was great, whole album live

Some really beautiful versions on CBS too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7sYhuYroHo

I don't know if this was linked before and it's a year and a half old, but this boygenius performance is off the hook amazing, particularly the take on Me and My Dog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96wDhimQ6nw&t=1018s

hm

https://youtu.be/96wDhimQ6nw

literally every time i watch them play Me & My Dog (in any session, not just this one ^) I get the shivers when Phoebe screams her part at the end

i must be nearly 2 years and, i dunno, 40 or 50 views in?

this record's production sounds significantly fuller and better on my proper headphones than earbuds, haven't encountered this level of discrepancy between those in recent memory

i've been playing dead
my whole life
and i get this feeling
whenever i feel good
it will be the last time.

this album is an out and out masterpiece

one uncomfortable thing about her songwriting is how literally autobiographical it is. i always kind of resisted songwriting like that, and appreciated how bob dylan, even at his most confessional, would disguise his experiences in several layers of myth, just enough to give the people in life plausible deniability (somewhat not really).

however, the literalism of bridgers' lyrics seem essential to the enterprise. something about affirming the absolute reality of one's biography in an era when our identities are spread across tech platforms and like political affiliations. which is another way of saying the album feels very grounded, in a way that might have seemed naive if every song didn't hit so hard and true.

How does this new album compare to her earlier Stranger in the Alps? I couldn't click with that one, even as I recognized her obvious talent.

the production is more ambitious.

xp i think there's still a layer of myth here, or at least a fascination with urban legend that keeps it just outside of "absolute reality"

fwiw I almost gave up on Stranger in the Alps after four or five listens, but two songs from it came up on shuffle relatively close together and they both wowed me and that was the key to unlocking it.

for me, the song that sold me was "Motion Sickness."

when i learned it was about ryan adams, i was disappointed at first. it felt gossipy or something. but then i thought more about it and realized it was still a great song and an honest song. i don't think she was trying to trash him in it -- even though that would have been her prerogative, i don't think that would have made for a good song. but it's really about her experience, being disillusioned with some charismatic jerk she was infatuated with and still despite herself misses. (i've been there).

this, though, probably stung ryan adams, especially in a song that is so much better than anything he's ever written:

And why do you sing with an English accent
I guess it's too late to change it now

I very rarely -- "Sara" an exception, maybe -- felt Dylan was an autobiographical or confessional a songwriter.

blood on the tracks is about his divorce. but he tells the story in a refracted way.

it's my favorite album.