Twining lyrical confessionals round downtempo mood studies is rarely the milieu of 22-year-old singer-songwriters, yet on this evidence Phoebe Bridgers isn’t your average young musician.
Early endorsements by Ryan Adams and Conor Oberst clearly gave the Los Angeles native a healthy dollop of self-confidence ahead of the sculpting of her debut album, the result being an intimate, hazy, multi-layered suite of songs that begins with Bridgers’ ballad Smoke Signals – a lullaby that could stop you in your tracks – and ends courageously with a masterly interpretation of the murderer’s lament You Missed My Heart, written by Mark Kozelek, which ramps up the song's uncanny sadness to a hitherto undreamt of degree.
In between Bridgers shifts from Americana (Scott Street) to piano balladry (Killer), folk rock (Demi Moore) and lilting pop (the Bee Gees strut of Motion Sickness) with the ease of a veteran, variously conjuring echoes of Judee Sill, Stevie Nicks and Bon Iver, casually wrapping words that speak of depression, loneliness and death in music that hovers with the delicacy of butterflies on a buddleia bush.
For a third or fourth album Stranger in the Alps would be remarkable; for a debut it is never less than exceptional.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here