On Love and Loss: Phoebe Bridgers’s Lost Weekend

After a period of radio silence from Phoebe Bridgers, she returned with a series of pop-up shows in various small cities across Middle America. To maintain an air of mystery, she initially spread the word of these pop-up shows through flyers posted across Roswell, New Mexico, where her first show took place. Although the concerts were phone- and photography-free, she still managed to cause a storm on the internet, with people predicting the next stops on her tour and trying to make connections between the places as possible easter eggs for her new album. These pop-up shows culminated in her final show and solo arena debut at Madison Square Garden. The next day, she announced a now sold-out American and European tour, and twenty days later, she announced the release of her new album Lost Weekend. 

The lead single of the album, “Lost Boys,” is sonically very simple. In the first verse, the only background to her vocals is an acoustic guitar line. As the song progresses, the instrumentals build, and with the transition into the first chorus, she brings a strong drum and horn line. The track is reminiscent of her beloved song “Kyoto” from her second album Punisher. They both are led by strong drums and strong vocals, and have a more pop-like tone than many would expect from Bridgers. Although they seem upbeat, these songs both discuss her tumultuous relationship with her now-deceased father. Where “Kyoto” explored her experience with her father from her point of view, illustrating how his abuse impacts her in her adult life, “Lost Boys” comes from a place of understanding for her father, illustrating how although he might have hurt her in his life, he was struggling himself and was “lost.” 

The guilt that Bridgers feels for trying to escape her childhood, and her relationship with her father, is further explored in the track “Never Going Back!”, which is lyrically the simplest on the album. The song repeats the words “Never going back again / The way it used to be is not the way that / It is” over and over until the outro. As the song comes to a close, a voicemail from her dad plays where he asks her to call him sometime even though “Being a rock star takes up a lot of [her] time.” She uses the voicemail to show her guilt for not spending enough time with her father while she had the chance. Although this song is about her grieving the fact that she will never be able to repair her relationship with her father, and never be able to experience “the way it used to be” with her father ever again, it is also simultaneously a celebration that she never has to return to her childhood where she faced so much abuse from her dad. The vocals themselves have an extremely melancholic nature, but the backing instrumentals are almost as upbeat as a pop-folk song. There is rhythmic guitar and intense drum fills in dichotomy with the nostalgic tone of her voice, leaving the song up to the listener’s interpretation. 

In Lost Weekend, Bridgers explores loss in many different ways, from relationships with family to romantic relationships and her relationship with herself. “The Governor's Waltz” is a reflection on a past relationship Bridgers had. It starts with a ghastly piano chord followed by a simple plucked acoustic guitar line, giving the song its pulse of a waltz. The song has a haunting chorus of backup voices, serving to illustrate how haunted she felt in the relationship. She felt unsteady and lacked connection with the person who was lying next to her in bed: “Let’s see how long we / can go without talking / watch me pretending to sleep.” Although she is close physically to this person, there is a lack of emotional connection that is hanging over her and causing her to lose sleep. This song explores her own connection to performance as well, with the lyrics “Since she took my place in my bed on that stage / I have not lost any sleep.” That stage, whether it be the Governor’s Ball, as is the song’s namesake, or performing in a relationship with this person, was weighing her down. Now that she has moved on, she feels more secure in herself and can finally be happy, which is apparent on other tracks of the album.

More than any album Bridgers has released before, Lost Weekend is a love album. Her current partner and collaborator on the album, Bo Burnham, is the subject of her song “Bobby,” where she leans more strongly into the folk-rock genre. She has a banjo line present throughout the song paired with driving drum fills that make it her first unabashedly happy song. She has lost all of the timidness that was present with past partners and is now confident in who she is and in her relationship. She is willing to commit to this partnership as she asks Bobby, “I don’t know if I can make it tonight/ but what are you doing the rest of my life?” Fans have never before seen a steady, stable, and happy version of Phoebe Bridgers, but it seems that Bobby might be the person to change that permanently.  

Lost Weekend is a heightened version of everything people have loved about Phoebe Bridgers in the past. She has grown as an artist, and her development seeps out of this album. She melds the electronic production that is becoming more and more popular with her traditional indie-folk background, and it leaves listeners feeling more distraught than ever before. Although many of the songs are less lyrically dense than her past songs, they pack just as strong a punch, leaving fans hoping that her next hiatus will be shorter. Lost Weekend carries just as much emotional weight as past Bridgers albums, but manages to have a more mature perspective both sonically and lyrically, making it an amazingly devastating listen.