PHOEBE BRIDGERS ^US

Ruminative and hook-filled indie folk

Phoebe Bridgers’ brand of soaring, emotive indie folk rock has made her one of the most in-demand young singer-songwriters around. In fact, she has been hailed as an icon of a new generation.

The 27-year-old musician releases sweet and tender tunes with the emotional gravitas of a forever-stretching freight train.

Her debut album, 2017’s Stranger in the Alps, made everybody swoon. Fronted by her soft and breathy vocals and packed with personal tales, it’s an album for sad times but one that alchemises sorrow into redemptive beauty. The album landed on everybody’s end-of-year lists and Bridgers landed on the cover of music magazines and on fellow musicians’ ‘want to work with’ lists.

She has played as part of boygenius alongside Julian Baker and Lucy Dacus, and she has played together with Conor Oberst in Better Oblivion Community Center. Bridgers has also released songs with The National’s Matt Berninger and Fiona Apple. Oh, and if it counts: she did an escape room with Jackson Browne.

In 2020, Bridgers released her second album, Punisher, which contains blue-toned songs about broken faith, self-destructive love and tenuous recovery. Her songs are still like small worlds you can get lost inside. You certainly get why the US musician has reaped such great reviews.

Phoebe Bridgers in concert is an emotional experience. She plays with a full band, and there is a warmth to the musicianship and, more pointedly, Bridgers' crystalline vocal delivery. She will leave you breathless, bruised and yet somehow at peace with the darkness of the human condition.