The Punisher.
One batch. Two batch. Penny and dime. "Who is Phoebe f###### Bridgers" like her self-titled Spotify playlist? Well open up her atmospheric 'DVD Menu' opening, make a f###### selection and find out. The 'Motion Sickeness' of the haunting 'Stranger In The Alps' may have been the indie towering record of 2017. Just like the album artwork painted ghostly white sheet like independent film, 'A Ghost Story' starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, a sheet with two eye-holes and an 'Overwhelmed' Dark Rooms scoring soundtrack was the movie of the year. Showing that independence is often more inspired than the mess of the mainstream. Now after hiding under a white sheet we get to the jumpsuit, Jack Skeleton bones of Bridgers best work yet in the 'Punisher' album that like a Frank Castle skull gets deeper than a flesh and blood love. For something as awe, awesome inspiringly atmospheric as the opening book of 'Garden Song' and a flowering album that grows on the same stem. "I’ll plant a garden in the yard/Then I’ll glue in roses on a flatbed/You should see it, I mean thousands/I grew up here ’til it all went up in flames/Except the notches in the door frame," she sings. Evoking memories of a home life growing up like pencilling in your height every year that could never be lost in translation. All before taking us to the Far East of Japan.
Alone in 'Kyoto' like Air or the soundtrack of Scarlett Johansson taking a Shinkansen there in bullet time to Sofia Coppola's compelling classic, Bridgers bridges the gap of another relationship failing to change with the times there, like traditional temples to nocturnal neon in the most beautiful place in the world. All to an old DVD like music video for this singers menu as she flies around the city and one's like Osaka and Tokyo in a Madonna 'Ray Of Light'. "Day off in Kyoto, got bored at the temple/Looked around at the 7-11/The band took the speed train, went to the arcade," she sings in the land of the rising sun, Conbini's and Pachinko slots. Then getting her Castle on with the album-titled 'Punisher', Phoebe shoots more from the hip with the "drugstores open all night" as she sings, "when the speed kicks in/I go to the store for nothing/And walk right by/The house where you lived with Snow White/I wonder if she ever thought/The storybook tiles on the wall were too much." Continuing to haunt on 'Halloween' the boygenius singer is scary good already in costume. But with no cover up to the yearning vulnerability she marks all her tracks with to the marrow. "I hate living by the hospital/The sirens go all night/I used to joke if they woke you up/Somebody better be dying," she rawly recalls before taking down her muses not so brilliant disguise as she says, "But I can count on you to tell me the truth/When you've been drinking and wear a mask". All too sobering we all know this kind of relationship hangover, love is hell, all too well. Calling more on 'Chinese Satellite' on the other side of the world, the artist from Los Angeles, California sends up a lantern, lamenting, "sometimes when I can't sleep/It's just a matter of time before I'm hearing things/Swore I could feel you through the walls/But that's impossible." Yet it always feels like that. If only.
'Moon Song' takes us out of this world and into her atmosphere again gone 4AM in the morning, zoning like K Pop's KATIE, echoing thinking about the one we love. "You asked to walk me home/But I had to carry you/And you pushed me in/And now my feet can't touch the bottom of you." Singing about hating Tears In Heaven and fighting about John Lennon, Bridgers broods over a punch drunk lover who won't sober up to her love. Waiting "like a dog with a bird at your door," when he could have "stuck (your) tongue down the throat of somebody who loves you more" at the nautical themed party. But as much as Phoebe wants the one she loves, she doesn't want to deal with a 'Saviour Complex' anymore. She's, "too tired to have a pissing contest". As, "emotional affair/Overly sincere/Smoking in the car/Windows up/Crocodile tears/Run the tap 'till it's clear," she's driving "around again". "One hand on the wheel. One in your mouth." And we see her like 'I See You', no celebrity avatar. But the independent real thing on her own two with her second solo set. The King, Presley would be proud like 'Graceland Too' or the 'Near Other Worlds' of fellow forest atmospheric artist Lo-Fang whose latest greatest came out last month and his astronaut out of this world cover or 'Don't Be Cruel' and Elvis soundbite of loneliness. Storming the gates of Graceland like a killing Brandon Flowers 'Wonderful, Wonderful,' going "back-to-back with Springsteen, as Bridgers sings, "so she picks a direction, it's nintey to Memphis/Turns up the music so thoughts don't intrude/Predictably winds up thinking about Elvis." But in the end, 'I Know The End' is the most epic track in classic closing with feral breathing for the bones of someone lost in the woods. But this punisher is predator, not prey. "Somewhere in Germany but I can't place it/Man I hate this part of Texas," she sings as following in the footsteps of friend Maggie Rogers', 'Heard It In A Past Life' and King Princess' 'Cheap Queen' best of last year, dynamic duo, dynamite debuts, Phoebe Bridgers sensational sophomore set and classic collection makes her a star like her native Hollywood's walk of fame. Although in this Best Coast year of California classics like 'Always Tomorrow', this woman in music is further from the hills like those Valley Girl sisters of Haim coming with part three next week. But between them and legend Norah Jones picking us up off the floor with her latest jazz greatest last week, Bridgers is making her own legacy. Punishment has never sounded so good. To not listen to this 'Punisher's' hit would be a crime. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Garden Song', 'Kyoto', 'Punisher'.
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