A favorite of longtime Phoebe Bridgers fans, “Waiting Room” captures the dizzying ups and downs of young love. Bridgers wrote this song when she was only 16 years old, and the rawness of her vulnerability bleeds through in both the lyrics and production.
In my mind, this song describes a love you’d do anything for, even when it’s painful or one-sided. Bridgers uses metaphors to describe the subject’s power over her, comparing her muse to a teacher and positioning herself as the student. Opposite this, she struggles with her limited influence over her lover, wanting to be a “power ballad that lifts [them] up and holds [them] down” or a “broken love song that feeds [their] misery.”
Bridgers also makes interesting points about the narcissism that comes with being a teenager. She wrestles with that guilt, saying, “And when broken bodies are washed ashore/Who am I to ask for more, more, more?” A common adolescent experience is feeling disconnected from the events of the outside world, usually due to self-absorption fueled by insecurity or intense emotions. Here, Bridgers is still participating in the self-absorption, but the song is so interesting because she’s aware of that dissonance.
During the climactic end of the song, Bridgers repeats the line “know it’s for the better” 36 times. In terms of the production of her music, she’s very well known for songs that start slow and steadily build to an epic finish (“I Know The End” is a great example of this). As the music swells and Bridgers chants her mantra of “know it’s for the better,” the lyric reads as if she’s desperately trying to convince herself that, no matter what—whether she ends up with her muse or not—it’ll end up being “for the better.”
Bridgers has stated in an interview that she feels the song is “super sincere” and “raw,” but she also struggles with looking back on it because she feels like she was “complaining” too much about a relationship that ended up working out and being beautiful. I think that these two ideas are what make the song so interesting; the idea that adolescence can hold so many moments that are painful and dear at the same time. Next time you’re looking to revisit those intense emotions of high school, make sure to give “Waiting Room” a listen!