If you’re like me, and you enjoy sad depressing music, I have got a treat for you. Phoebe Bridgers’ music practically makes me want to cry (not literally), it’s so sad. Like, consistently sad. Some songs are more sad than others, but they’re never happy.
To be honest, this music won’t be for everyone. You have to have a dark side to appreciate this. We’re talking about a girl who made a four song EP of sad Christmas songs… Ain’t nobody else making sad Christmas songs. If you’ve read any of the past articles *hint* *check out my top ten Christmas songs* *hint*, you know I love Christmas music; and despite it being quite melancholy, it’s a really dope project. However, she was nominated for four grammy’s this year; so in the off chance you don’t like her, you can take that up with The Academy. Bridgers received nominations for best new artist, best alternative album for her second full length album Punisher, and best rock song & rock performance for her song “Kyoto”. The Grammy’s have been receiving a lot of slander over recent years, but this still impressive for someone so new in the music industry. Even more impressive, she was on Kid Cudi’s most recent album… So she’s made it.
Campfire Songs
I opened with how sad her music is because that’s her vibe and will most likely determine whether you like her music or not. However, there’s a lot more to her and her music. If gun to my head, I had to describe her music, off the dome, it’d be: “Campfire Music”. She’s listed on Apple Music as Alternative, which makes sense, but genres are overrated classifications of music. Without actually looking up what it really entails, or even actually listening to it, I’d say she makes Folk music. And in my mind, campfire music and folk music are synonymous. I’m actually pretty sure 99% of all folk songs are made at campfires anyway.
I classify her this way because of her story telling abilities. That’s what you do at campfires right? She has the innate ability to paint vivid pictures with her voice, and not every artist has that. She covers a plethora of topics and shares plenty memories as well, and you guessed it, they’re usually sad. It also helps that her songs are often very minimalistic, emphasizing her voice and diction. Obviously you aren’t gonna have a lot going on at a campfire, proving my point further. Despite this, I find her lyrics are often challenging to decipher, making you really have listen, and listen multiple times to understand. I’ll often be tricked because they seem so literal, until I realize I have no clue what she’s talking about, ultimately making me go back and listen again. It really tends to make me feel that I’m actually in her mind, and being in someone else’s mind can be a strange place. But that’s why I like it.
As mentioned, her songs are often very slow and simplistic, allowing her voice to be the main focus of the composition. For this reason, I would understand if you didn’t resonate with her music. It brings her the opportunity to display her soft melancholy voice, and to emphasize the story. It’s quite funny because her singing voice is very soft but her speaking voice is actually quite deep for a woman. She got that range I guess. This was most prominent in her debut album, Stranger in the Alps, but in her most recent album Punisher she ventures slightly more into Rock music. To be fair, it’s like ~soft~ Rock music, so if you’re a hardcore Rock fan don’t get your hopes too high.
Music Videos
Feeding into her crypticness, she also has some interesting music videos.
I’m a big fan of music videos in general because they seemingly never have anything to do with the song, especially at first watch. This allows them to be very open to interpretation, and Bridgers’ videos are no different. Guessing what the artist is trying to portray is my favorite part of watching, and she’s got some tough ones. However, she has a variety and they’re all entertaining despite their ambiguity.
But Yeah…
As I said before, if you don’t like her music then you’re just blatantly wrong because she was nominated for grammy’s (jk). If you’re going through some troubling times, or you have a dark soul, or you just like sad music definitely give her a listen and definitely let me know if you did. As usual, you’re a real one if you’ve read this far, and you’re fake if you didn’t (jk).