Welcome back to ROTW, this is the Easter edition. Brought to you by the Randomizer, today's record is Phoebe Bridgers' 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps. This is the copy I'll be listening to today, a 2019 reissue on a gorgeous shade of purple vinyl.
For me, it was like one minute she wasn't there and the next, she had arrived as a fully formed artist. And everyone seemed to be talking about her. I listened a bit and liked what I heard. I picked up this album and pretty much fell in love. I then learned she had been involved with Ryan Adams (he recorded her Killers EP for his label) when his bullshit went down, and she had gone on to write Motion Sickness about her experience with him. Thankfully she's transcended that dude and we're all the better for it.
Anyways, back to the album, it's end-to-end bangers as far as I'm concerned. I flat out love it and will listen anytime it pops up. She's one of those artists that can do no wrong. Her album with Conor Oberst (Better Oblivion Community Center). Her "other" band, Boygenius (with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker). Anytime she pops up as a feature (she has a good number of them). The time she destroyed a guitar on SNL and everyone got all mad. The dumbest fucking discourse over that shit. Her picks for cover songs (Metallica's Nothing Else Matters, Bo Burnham's That Funny Feeling, The Carpenters' Goodbye to Love). Just a very cool artist and seems like a cool person.
Her second album, Punisher, might be technically "better and more mature" but Stranger in the Alps is my fave at this point. Simply a perfect album to my ears. Give it a try.