Phoebe Bridgers’ solo career has remained silent since her 2020 release, Punisher, making Lost Weekend her first record in six years and third overall. Dedicated to her dad, who passed away in 2023, this album uncovers the complicated reality of grief, relationships, and mortality through Bridgers’ lyricism.
“The Outside”
Bridgers opens the album with a song sung through a vocoder, starting with references to her father’s funeral in the lyric “I’ll watch him get carried away,” priming the listener for the perturbingly complex lyrics ahead.
“Lost Boys”
This album packages a fairytale-like single into a nostalgic, coming-of-age track. Bridgers mimics childlike innocence through the idea of living as a child forever, referencing Peter Pan in the chorus, where she sings “lost boys never grow up.”
“Kill Me”
Facing mortality is a common theme in this album, most notably through her father. However, “Kill Me” tackles a more layered approach to her own mortality, with Bridgers repeatedly singing, “this is gonna kill me, wait.” Finding control of her own grief and life, she ends the song by singing “Taman Shud,” “it is the end” in Persian, possibly referencing the closing track of her album Punisher, “I Know the End.”
“Governor’s Waltz”
As the title suggests, this song is in ¾, the waltz time signature. This song very clearly recounts the past relationship between Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal, along with his new public partner, Gracie Abrams. One shocking lyric illustrates disdain and sympathy for Abrams, with Bridgers singing, “and she can pretend to be me / since she took my place on my bed on that stage / I have not lost any sleep / being myself wasn’t easy / do it for me.”
At face value, this lyric suggests that Abrams has taken Bridgers’ place in bed with Mescal as a romantic partner, but it’s actually more layered than that. The deeper meaning behind this lyric goes back years, to when Gracie Abrams posted a selfie of herself on her bed on Instagram and Bridgers replied with “we have the same sheets!” During Bridgers’ “tour” in 2020, where she performed in her bedroom during the pandemic, she sat on her bed with those same sheets.
Now, in Abrams’ performances of “Alright,” she sits onstage on a bed with those same space sheets, suggesting a tone of arrogance around her relationship with Mescal. Despite this, Bridgers seems to offer Abrams advice for her relationship. Bridgers stated Mescal possibly made it difficult for her to be herself, and she hopes Abrams can do it with ease.
“Bobby”
“Bobby” is a track written for Bridger’s comedian boyfriend, Bo Burnham. He’s best known for his 2021 special, Bo Burnham: Inside, which she references in the first lyric: “I saw you slow dancing alone in your room.” This song is in stark contrast to the rest of the album.
It is one of the few upbeat, romantic tracks and full of cute, heartwarming Easter eggs about their relationship. The song ends with a touching layered lyric, “this could be the end of wanting.” You can hear Burnham singing along if you listen closely.
“Lost Weekend”
The song connecting all the themes of the record, “Lost Weekend,” has an extremely somber tone, referencing her childhood and family along with her past relationship with Mescal through lyrics like “I loved you and you couldn’t forgive me for that.”
“Haunted”
A dramatic difference from the previous track, “Haunted” brings a hopeful tone to the album, describing her touring process and telling herself, “I’m gonna put myself together; you can go, or you can stay,” presumably referencing her father and processing his passing.
“Panorama”
This track is mainly instrumental, which Bridgers explained in an interview was purposeful because of her love of strange, ambient music. She also described this song as an auditory description of the dissociation she often feels.
“Still Standing”
In this incredibly poignant song, Bridgers illustrates the abuse her late father inflicted on her family growing up, along with her processing of his death. Bridgers starts the first chorus by recounting her high school prom night: “but I am still standing at the top of the stairs, turning red / pound for pound in a prom dress / you try to make me afraid.” These lyrics pack lots of double meaning, where the “turning red” could be out of embarrassment, or be the physical manifestations of her father’s abuse. Then, “pound for pound” could suggest a weight insecurity, possibly fueled by her father’s verbal abuse, or it could use the word as a verb, another signifier of his physical abuse.
Bridgers then changes the scene to after he passed, presumably at his funeral, and says she’s “feeling indifferent, wearing black / sometimes I want you back, but not today.” Wearing black is often associated with grieving, contrasting with how she feels indifferent about his passing. In the next verse, she vividly describes the abuse her father inflicted on her family: “I found her bleeding over the sink but when you said sorry you were looking at me.” This lyric either implies that her father’s physical abuse led to her mother bleeding, or that her mother began engaging in self-harm as a coping mechanism.
Either way, her father does not seem to apologize to her mother; instead, he just feels sorry that Bridgers had to see the effects. Bridgers finishes the track with the lyric, “I can’t imagine you dead, but you are every day / thank you for everything,” leaving her true feelings about her father ambiguous.
“Liberty Tree”
This is another song dedicated to her partner, Bo Burnham, where she sings about them existing with the same carelessness as a teenage couple, relaying a time they went to a mall in Burnham’s hometown, saying that they’re “not getting any younger.” Throughout this song, Bridgers portrays her love with Burnham as young and innocent. She then shocks the listener with the ending lyric “don’t die, Bobby before I die / it feels so good to have you in my life” to symbolize how death is always in the back of Bridgers’ mind, a theme apparent throughout this whole album.
“Never Going Back!”
A relatively short song with only one sung lyric, this track still packs a punch. She repeats “never going back again. The way it used to be is not the way that it is,” likely referencing her father’s death. After a vocal fade-out, a crackling voicemail from her dad plays, depicting their complex relationship that borders between love and hate.
“Other Plans”
“Other Plans” was a last-minute addition to the album, with a solemn tone and simplistic instrumental. Bridgers says she doesn’t fully know what it’s written about, but she wanted to create a one-note melody. “You tell me what it’s about,” Bridgers said.
“Lost Parade”
As the only fully instrumental track, “Lost Parade” is a short, one-minute interlude to give listeners time to process the rousing lyrics of the previous songs.
“I Can’t Wait”
One of the most introspective lyrics from this track is sung with Cameron Winter, frontman of Geese. Together, they sing “Hyde Jekyll Hyde / finally together,” a reference to Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella where Jekyll and Hyde are the same person, manifesting as separate in his head. This alludes to Bridgers finally at peace with two parts of herself in the process of grieving her father, or possibly to her love with Burnham becoming so attuned to each other they feel like one.
“As Above”
“As Above” is a dreamlike song. It narrates a melancholy experience on a plane. Bridgers continues the theme of mortality in this track, with lyrics like “now, I don’t wanna live forever / but I don’t wanna die.” In the climax of the song, it seems as though she’s talking to a friend or romantic partner, where she ardently states “you won’t have to believe in magic / leave it to me and I’ll make it happen,” outwardly rebuking the theme of an idealistic relationship created in “Lost Boys.”
“Lost Weekend (Reprise)”
In an incredibly hard-hitting way to end the record, Bridgers faces her father’s passing in the reprise of “Lost Weekend” head-on by repeating the lyric “he’s not coming back,” giving perfect closure to the album dedicated to her deceased father.
In Lost Weekend, Bridgers captured a hauntingly beautiful message about the intricacies of living through grief and joy at the same time. Her lyrics encompass a wide range of emotions through hyper-specific details, bringing her listeners into her headspace effortlessly. All in all, Bridgers has proved her musical mastery again on this album, giving listeners a rewarding gift after their six-year-long wait.