The Duality of Phoebe Bridgers' New Album: Dive Deep Into "Lost Weekend"
Phoebe Bridgers' latest album, "Lost Weekend" is a magnificent example of how when instrumentation, unique sounds, and meaningful lyrics work together with bravery and honesty, one-of-a-kind art can be created. Bridgers beautifully uses dark, ethereal sounds and contrasts them with folky, bright instrumentation to display the dynamic sensations of life, loss, and love. If you love Phoebe Bridgers or overanalyzing and breaking apart music, you're in the right place!
-----------The Dark-----------
Phoebe Bridgers opens her album with staticky, broken, and dark sounds in "The Outside." When her voice enters, it is saturated by an ominous and rough voice changer that is unaccompanied by any background instrumentation. This song notably opens the album on a darkly captivating note. This vibe trickles more softly throughout the rest of the album into songs like "As Above" and "Other Plans."
The dark, ethereal sounds are crafted by deep synth rhythms and piano. Lower, the bass is often airy and almost drags along unnoticed.
In "Other Plans," Bridgers is able to maintain the dark atmosphere of the song while adding subtly brighter noises to the end, like piano. This keeps the melancholy feeling of the piece while adding depth and unique sounds that draw the audience in. The lyrics are notably minimal, but don't necessarily force the instruments to do all of the work. In fact, the lyrics are made even more meaningful due to their scarcity. Every sentence serves a purpose and is supported by the melancholy and dark sounds to create a song tragically tainted with sadness as well as amicable reflection.
Similarly, "As Above" also utilizes piano, specifically, the same up-and-down echoey piano melody throughout the whole song. The vibe of the song is dark thanks to the minimal, yet defining instrumentation, as well as Phoebe's monotone voice, until she approaches the chorus and bridge. The simple instrumentation actually adds depth to the song by emphasizing Phoebe's lyrics. She's reflecting on the past and how it melts into the future while extracting meaning from seemingly frivolous moments. It sort of feels as if you're listening to her thoughts. The song comes to a climax at the bridge, when the instrumentation bursts with intense synth sounds and drums, and most prominently, Phoebe's voice screaming "You don't have to believe in magic, leave it to me and I'll make it happen." She's brilliantly able to brighten the song without lifting the weight of the dark, heavy sounds that define it. This song is a perfect example of keeping lyrics and noises distinctive from each other while also marrying them together to create a characterizing sensation.
------------The Light-----------
Bridgers sprinkles bursts of bright and folky sounds throughout her album to add depth to the songs themselves as well as the record as a whole. She includes instruments like guitar, banjo, and harmonica, and even switches between how she uses them (e.g. guitar plucking vs. strumming). By using these bright, upbeat rhythms and noises, Phoebe is able to upgrade her album from a list of dark, sad songs to an artwork that explores many unique aspects of being human. The light is able to draw in a wider audience by falling closer to the pop genre, and convinces them to stay when paired with her thoughtful lyrics and carefully composed instrumentation.
"Lost Boys" is the second song on Bridgers' album and a very harsh contrast from the beginning of "The Outside." The song is almost immediately bright and catchy with folk undertones, and evolves into the chorus that lifts with excitement. The track follows a catchy beat created by open guitar strumming and drums until the chorus, where what sounds like a trumpet is added to brighten the song even further. The excitement of this song mirrors the excitement of childhood where every corner unveils a new discovery and the most weighing worries are "lunch money." The listener feels the sensation of the freedom of childhood while also being put in a position that makes them feel like they are talking to a group of young children as they are singing along-- essentially reliving the moment while telling others to cherish it. The instrumentation grasps the audience's attention and brings them together through the universal experience of childhood.
The seventh song of the album "Haunted" perfectly exemplifies Phoebe's use of folk and bright sounds to make meaning in this album. The song kicks off with a very prominent guitar sound that is accompanied by violin. The simplicity of the guitar and subtle violin creates a sort of intimate atmosphere, like you're having a conversation with Phoebe. While there is no clear chorus, after Bridgers says "There is a difference between lying and deciding what not to say," the melody picks up and the bass beat is added, introducing a more popish sound while preserving the folk guitar. This song explores the bad through a positive lens and is supported by its bright and upbeat sounds. For example, Bridgers says "If you're gonna make a wish then you better be specific, you're gonna have to live it everyday." While in any casual context this might seem like a warning or negative comment, the bright folk guitar and exciting bass inserts a positive connotation-- that you get to live it everyday!
---The Dark and The Light---
While the two extremes of "Lost Weekend" work extremely well separately to conjure meaning, they work even better together.
In "Haunted," the bridge quickly deflates into melancholy, dark sounds made by emotional violin and minor guitar chords. This bridge talks about someone else going or staying, but in the end, Phoebe's gonna put herself together "either way--" and that's when the brightness returns and the song steps back into its electrifying and upbeat tune.
An even better example of the dark and the light working together is the song "I Can't Wait." It begins with ethereal sounds and vocalization as well as synth noises, creating a dark vibe that isn't necessarily sad. The melancholy feeling that would be present is lifted by a low guitar string being strung repeatedly, adding an intensity that is thrilling rather than tragic. As the song progresses, bass drums are added and the beat becomes more traceable and lifted. You'd almost think it's turning into a pop song-- but then the synth-y, dark sounds quickly stop and switch into bright folk instrumentation with banjo and guitar. This is one of the harshest switches in the album, and it alters the course of the whole song. It doesn't necessarily morph into a joyous vibe but rather into a sentimental and connected feeling supported by a second voice singing the bridge alongside Phoebe. In the outro, the instrumentation returns to the synth-y, ethereal noises and intensifies again in that dark tone with violin and a new sense of excitement that is an unfamiliar sensation in this song. This back-and-forth rollercoaster of emotions mirrors the overwhelming feeling of loving someone and getting so close to having them but then losing them. She talks about this situation and feeling but inserts the sensation into the listener through her dynamic sounds.
----------Conclusion----------
Beyond all of the deep analysis of Bridgers' instrumentation, creation of atmospheres, and lyrics, the album as one piece of work is incredibly dynamic and you could probably listen to it a million times and find something new each time. It is evident that Phoebe Bridgers dedicated a lot of time, thought, and vulnerability to "Lost Weekend" and had the bravery to experiment with new sounds and take her audience on an unfamiliar journey. Personally, I hope aspiring artists take notes from Bridgers' versatility and attention to detail in this album because this method truly creates memorable and irreplaceable art!
Source:
"Lost Weekend" album by Phoebe Bridgers.
