Waiting six years between records when you’re at the height of your powers might be like shooting yourself in the foot, but not for Phoebe Bridgers, whose cultural presence somehow looms even larger since the release of Punisher all the way back in 2020. This is, in large part, thanks to acclaimed “supergroup” collaborations with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus (boygenius) and indie rock godfather Conor Oberst (Better Oblivion Community Center), plus features on songs from pop juggernauts like MUNA, SZA, and Taylor Swift. But it’s also thanks to finding herself in a highly scrutinized relationship, and then another, putting her at an overwhelming level of visibility from which the only way out was stepping into the shadows. Lost Weekend, her third solo album, contends with this.
The sharp, intimate lyric-writing that has made Bridgers so beloved is ever-present on Lost Weekend, slicing like a knife through ambient arrangements of jet-black synth. Heavier patches of songs come close to weighing it all down, but euphoric bursts like “Bobby,” airy acoustic jaunts like “Haunted,” and clanging banjo singalongs like “Never Going Back!” (the best of too many interstitials) keep it floating just above the surface. The latter closes with a fade-out voicemail from Bridgers’ late father, whose passing in 2022 is deeply felt in the album’s whirlpool of love and loss. Lost Weekend moves slowly and deliberately, Bridgers’ low, breathy singing more even-keeled and self-assured than ever amid playful sonic experiments of noise, effects, and sneaky guest vocals. The standouts, like “Liberty Tree” and “Lost Boys,” bring some needed levity to this cloudier set.
