Punisher // Phoebe Bridgers – Adam Goldsmith
Released: 18 June 2020
Punisher is no typical indie-folk record. For someone who finds comfort in life’s shadows, the album’s mastery marked Phoebe Bridgers as one of indie’s brightest talents.
Smirking, the Californian-native shapeshifts from introspective recluse (‘Garden Song’) to lively rock-star (‘Kyoto’). Yet, for all its experimentation Punisher remains outrageously on-brand. Bridgers has been donning a skeleton outfit at live gigs for years, and there’s a ghostly hue to the self-reflective journey the singer embarks on. At times, Bridgers’ lyricism is floating and omniscient, but then she’s back in the room, furrowed in self-doubt. In these quieter moments, you can find the ghostly ambience of debut, Stranger in the Alps.
Self-produced, there’s no doubt it is Bridgers who is in control of the album’s instrumental momentum. The orchestral swell of tracks like ‘I Know the End’ and ‘ICU’ match the ebb and flow of Bridgers’ worries and reliefs.
The album’s haunting calm feels a little like the older sister to Billie Eillish’s When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?; both artists possessing the supernatural ability to create a sense of the spectral in their music. Of course, Bridgers could never have foreseen a global pandemic, but her internal examination of an apocalyptic life in Punisher cuts deep at a time of global introspection.