Phoebe Bridgers
Even when you are looking for new music as actively as I am, some stuff slips through the cracks. You can't hear every new release right away. On occasion, though, I catch up with something and I become highly enthused for it, even if I am just behind the curve. That is certainly the case with Phoebe Bridgers' Stranger in the Alps.
Phoebe Bridgers
I remember hearing about the album when it came out. The title certainly stuck out to me, as I recognized it as a line from the edited-for-television version of The Big Lebowski, a movie I think is great but don't talk about too often because I am not a "Lebowski guy" in the classical sense. Back in the day, I checked out Mitski's album Bury Me at Makeout Creek because it was a line from The Simpsons, and I was glad I did because that is a great record. However, I set Bridgers' album aside for a few months after it came out in September of 2017. Recently, though, I gave it a spin, and found myself listening to a few of the tracks over and over.
Now, that last sentence could be taken two ways. It's certainly a sign of quality that I have gotten hooked on a few tracks from Stranger in the Alps. On the other hand, I did highlight that I've re-listened a bunch to a couple of songs, not the entire album. That being said, if an album gives you a few truly transcendent songs, you can't be disappointed.
Bridgers is a singer-songwriter in the Elliott Smith vein. That is one way of saying that her music can be a real god damn bummer. If you want a more contemporary reference, there's Julien Baker, who is a woman of a similar age, and the two actually toured together. How every show didn't end with a mass suicide I don't know. They are both deeply talented musicians with beautiful voices, but their music tends to be profoundly sad.
I am always taken with her voice, though. Bridgers has a beautiful, aching voice, and it stays with you.
Strangers in the Alps is a bit stripped down, which works for what Bridgers is doing, and for the quality of sound she is going for, but I tend to like things a bit lusher. That's where Baker's 2017 album Turn Out the Lights separates itself from Bridgers' offering. Baker made a top five album of the year. I might put Stranger in the Alps in my top 10, certainly in my top 15, but it can be too sparse at times. The music is too quiet on occasions, and I am not always entirely taken with her as a lyricist.
I am always taken with her voice, though. Bridgers has a beautiful, aching voice, and it stays with you. When her words resonate with me, they hit hard. Lots of people sing about depression or despair or heartache, but not everybody do it as well as she does. On occasion, her lyrics are perhaps a bit too personal. The details are so specific they can hold you at a distance. Other times, though, you can't help but be shaken to your core.
The two songs I can't get enough of are "Funeral" and "Killer." They are both gigantic bummers. The chorus of "Funeral" begins, "Jesus Christ, I'm so blue all the time." It's truly amazing, though. When she musters the effort to sing the words, "I am sick of the chase, but I'm stupid in love," in "Killer" my heart breaks every single time. It's gorgeous, and definitely the most emotionally-wrenching love song to name drop Jeffrey Dahmer.
If you don't mind an artist tugging on your heartstrings, and "tug" may not be strong enough a word, and you like singer-songwriters, you shouldn't miss Stranger in the Alps. I was really glad I circled around back to it. Some of the songs are going to stay with me for the rest of my life.
