Phoebe Bridgers' third album, Lost Weekend, has arrived six years after her pandemic-era breakthrough, drawing five-star reviews from the Guardian and marking her first solo charting single in the UK. Yet her influence transcends sales figures, as she has become the defining songwriter of the 2020s, shaping the sound of a decade with her idiosyncratic blend of wit and pathos.
From RuneScape to Stardom
Bridgers' journey from a Berklee dropout who referenced RuneScape and wore Halloween costumes to a Grammy-winning artist is nothing short of remarkable. Her second album, Punisher, released in June 2020, eerily anticipated the isolation of that year, with eerie double-tracked vocals (a nod to Elliott Smith) and lyrics about empty malls and conspiracy theories, set to lush, unsettling music featuring watery electric guitar, Mellotron, strings, screams, and birdsong.
Today, her influence is evident in the work of pop's new chart-toppers like Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams, while heavyweights such as Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, and SZA have sought collaborations. Swift told the Guardian in 2022, "She is the reference now."
A Voice for a Particular Moment
Author Carmen Maria Machado, who first met Bridgers at an event for her memoir In the Dream House, notes a kinship between their work. "Phoebe’s never looking directly on, rather looking askance," Machado says. "Her music is so precise and weird and beautiful; it’s a prayer or an ode to this place that we’re living in, while also watching it fall apart." Machado even published a short story to accompany Punisher.
Reviews for Lost Weekend highlight its deeply personal subject matter—the death of Bridgers' father and the end of her engagement to actor Paul Mescal—alongside her surreal humor. Performing the single "Lost Boys" on the Tonight Show, she first played with a band of fizzing children, then in an acoustic arrangement with folk legend Dan Reeder, creating a trippy, sweet, and faintly morbid effect that is distinctly Phoebe.
Matter-of-Fact and Magical
Naomi McPherson of Muna describes Bridgers' blend of matter-of-fact and magical as infuriating and inspiring. "To be able to put that in a song in a way that isn’t stupid, but is actually brilliant and somehow deeply touching, is an enormous feat," McPherson says, referencing a line about turning down the stereo volume to parallel park.
Muna signed to Bridgers' label Saddest Factory in 2021, joining a cohort of imaginative, predominantly queer musicians united under her mantra of "getting cool stuff out to people as fast as possible." Claud, the label's first signee, whose song "A Good Thing" soundtracked the Heartstopper finale, emphasizes Bridgers' support: "I knew I could trust her opinions and instincts for my project, because I love everything she does with hers."
Changing the Industry
The label was folded into parent company Dead Oceans earlier this year after a trademark dispute, but its lasting influence reflects Bridgers' determination to improve the music industry. Her supergroup Boygenius, formed with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, played their biggest stages and won three Grammys. At the 2024 ceremony, Bridgers used her acceptance speech to condemn former Recording Academy boss Neil Portnow, who had been accused of sexual assault, for his disparaging "step up" comment, saying, "Rot in piss!"
Passionate Fanbase and Pop-Up Shows
Bridgers' plain-talking has won her a passionate fanbase, many sporting matching ghost tattoos referencing her 2017 debut Stranger in the Alps. Her concerts are intense; Claud, who has toured with her, describes "crowds of tens of thousands where you can actually hear a pin drop." For Lost Weekend, she promoted the album with secretive pop-up shows across the US, taking new songs directly to fans.
Fan Baleigh Epperly, an environmental advocate and DJ, "freaked out" when Bridgers played at the Loud, a 500-capacity venue in Huntington, West Virginia. "We never get shit," she laughs, saying it meant everything that Bridgers visited "the overlooked places, the places where she knows her fans are." The shows were first come, first served, capped at $50 a ticket, and mobile-phone free. Epperly predicts the performance will have a lasting impact on young musicians in Appalachia: "If Phoebe is good enough for West Virginia, then you’re good enough to play here, to live here, to be from here."
An Aspirational Songwriter
Muna's Katie Gavin describes Bridgers' influence in similar terms: "She’s an aspirational songwriter for me. Seeing her make art makes me want to do it, which is what the best music does." As Lost Weekend continues to resonate, Bridgers' legacy as the voice of a generation is firmly cemented.
