Phoebe Bridgers’ album Lost Weekend

Phoebe Bridgers is your favorite pop star’s favorite pop star. And she’s just released a gorgeous new solo album, Lost Weekend. It’s packed with guest stars including her boygenius bandmates, pop superproducer Jack Antonoff and her partner, Bo Burnham. The record’s 16 songs are full of lore, lush sonic ideas, and quotable insights about love, sex, and death. But does Bridgers’ long-awaited return make up for lost time? If you need more multifaceted pop music, check out these episodes: Ariana Grande stares down the public eye in 'Petal' https://www.npr.org/2026/08/05/nx-s1-5920274/ariana-grande-stares-down-the-public-eye-in-petal Olivia Rodrigo seems pretty sad, but does she still generate bangers? https://www.npr.org/2026/06/17/nx-s1-5860352/olivia-rodrigo-seems-pretty-sad-but-does-she-still-generate-bangers Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel, that's your drive for more. Capella University's Flex Path learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Phoebe Bridgers is your favorite pop star's favorite pop star. Her latest album is gorgeous. It's called Lost Weekend, and it covers a lot of ground. It's packed with guest stars from her Boy Genius bandmates to pop super producer Jack Antonoff to her partner Bo Burnham. Lost Weekend's 16 songs are packed with lore, lush sonic ideas, and grand quotable insights about love, sex, and death. I'm Stephen Thompson, and joining me on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is NPR music critic and correspondent Anne Powers. Hey, Anne.

• 0:52Speaker 02

  Hi, Stephen. How you doing?

• 0:53Speaker 01

  I'm doing well. Also joining us and making her Pop Culture Happy Hour debut, how has it been this long, is NPR music producer Elle Mannion. Welcome to the show, Elle.

• 1:02Speaker 03

  Hi, Stephen. Thank you. So thrilled to be here.

• 1:05Speaker 01

  Thrilled to have you.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  We had to have Elle on because she is the Phoebiologist of our team.

• 1:11Speaker 03

  I did feel like I was asked on as the team's resident farb, so here we are.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  It's the job you were born to do. So Phoebe Bridgers' previous solo album, Punisher, helped make her a star back in 2020. Since its release, she's won four Grammys, released a hit record with her supergroup Boy Genius, lost her father, left a serious relationship with Paul Meskell, begun another with Bo Burnham, and embarked on a hiatus from public life. Many of those life events inform Lost Weekend, which unfolds in phases and reflects on many of the beginnings and endings in Phoebe Bridgers's life. All that lore gives fans plenty to unpack, but it's also a gorgeous record on the surface with rich and sometimes orchestral arrangements and a long list of contributors that range from bluegrass band Nickel Creek to the classical composer Caroline Shaw to indie rock luminaries

• 2:02Speaker 01

  like Alex G., Blake Mills, John Bryan, and the other members of Boy Genius, Lucy Dacus and Julian Baker. Lost Weekend is out now. Anne Powers, you wrote about Lost Weekend extensively and eloquently for NPR Music last week, but give me your top-line thoughts. What did you think?

• 2:18Speaker 02

  Out of the gate, it's being declared a masterpiece, and I think that's really fascinating, Stephen. I mean, you know, when that happens, I get a little skeptical. It's just like, oh, are we just all falling in step, you know?

• 2:29Speaker 01

  I reflexively hate it.

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Well, yes, that is my way. But in fact, I really feel those accolades are earned. This is a huge leap for her. As you said, it's so sonically rich. Lyrically, it is in her lane. She continues to build these beautiful cinematic vignettes that, you know, dip into her autobiography but which resonate with fans. People can relate to them. But she's doing really fascinating things with fragmentation and musical distortion and lyrical, I wouldn't say obfuscation, that's the wrong word, but kind of slant lyrics, you know? Both to address the upheaval in this period of her life, which was considerable, and also

• 3:14Speaker 02

  to make us think about how we, as fans, kind of parasocially attach to this life story of someone like Phoebe Bridgers. And I feel like she's giving fan service on this record. She's like answering all our questions, but doing it in a way that's both poetic and also that makes you think about your own interests and how it's a little period.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Sure. How about you, Elle?

• 3:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was very excited for this album, and I think it mostly lived up to my expectations. I have listened to the album so many times over the past week, and I will say with 16 songs and almost an hour long, there is a lot to take in. As you've mentioned, she works with a lot of collaborators on this album, you know, like there's a whole soccer team of people who went into making this. And I think I did find myself sometimes getting a little lost between the songs. There are four songs on the album with the word "lost" in their title. And I think, you know, going from song to song with the sequencing, but also even within

• 4:19Speaker 03

  a song, I felt a bit of emotional whiplash with the varying emotions and production choices. But I think it really works because, as we mentioned, on this album, Phoebe is processing grief, which is something that famously has many nonlinear stages and emotions. Yeah, it's an album that really rewards close listening, and I'm excited to have this new universe of songs to explore.

• 4:45Speaker 02

  You know, Elle, you mentioned different production choices. And Jack Antonoff being here, when I saw his name on this credits list, I thought, oh, no. I don't know, did you guys have that reaction?

• 4:57Speaker 03

  I had the same reaction. Yeah.

• 4:59Speaker 02

  But also Alex G. also worked a little bit on the production. So the presence of Jack Antonoff could have signaled a more quote-unquote "pop" move. Now, we could have a whole, long discussion about what it even means to make a pop move, but what I love is that Phoebe did change her sound, expand her sound, but it's still very much in her lane.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 5:20Speaker 02

  You know, this is not a Taylor-style leap into the top 40.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  You know, it's a different expansion. It's still very arty, which I love.

• 5:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Well, and I think that pop-mindedness on the tracks Jack Antonoff works on, that pop-mindedness is directed toward bigness and not so much like a certain kind of radio-friendly brightness.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly. It's more rock.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  He brings in a little bit more grandeur, I think, the songs that have him on them. I agree with Elle that this record, taken kind of as a first gulp, feels a little overwhelming in ways that, for me, led it to feel a little front-loaded, where like the tracks that really got under my skin were kind of in the first half of the record. By the time I got to the second half, I maybe felt a little bit of exhaustion, kind of processing exhaustion, even though there are moments across the second half that knocked me cold. I found myself like needing to break this record up a little bit into chunks. But it's so beautiful. And, you know, I mentioned kind of the surface, just how rich and varied this sonic palette here is.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  This is a record that is going to reward not only multiple listens, but multiple listens over time.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  These songs are going to reveal more and more as you listen to them two, three, four months later, as you're able to kind of plug them into different things in your own life. As specific as she is here, as much as she is indulging some of the lore, some of the gossip around her life.

• 6:53Speaker 02

  All of the lore, all of the gossip.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  She leaves a lot of things open-ended, open to interpretation. There are things that you'll immediately pick up, right? In the song "Bobby," it's clearly about Bo Burnham. If you watched Bo Burnham's Netflix special Inside, you can share parasocially some of the connection that she felt to him early on.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  But at the same time, there are songs here where you're going to hear them four months later and be like, oh, I was so blown away by the song "The Outside," which opens this record, which is kind of in that vocoder-y, Imogen-heap, a lot of vocal distortion.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  It's very, very beautiful, and I probably listened to it a dozen times before I realized it was about her father's funeral.

• 8:03Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  How, Stephen?

• 8:08Speaker 03

  Lost in the vocoder.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  I kind of made fun of you and said how just now, but then I have to say, I actually saw some reviews that implied that "Crying in the Suit and Tie" was actually about being on stage with Boy Genius. Because she always wore a suit in that group. So I take back my insult.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  I think it could be about both.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  Right. And she has had other songs throughout her career where like, I thought Kyoto was about a relationship, but it's actually about her relationship with her father. It took me a long time to pick up on that, in part because I'm dense and in part because she's an extremely clever lyricist. And my immediate thought when I clocked those lines was, man, you know, as sad as everybody talks about Phoebe Bridgers' music as being, she's very funny.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  And like, "You Should See the Other Guy," kind of just like being one of the first lines on the record, in this song that is almost oppressively sad-sounding, is a very Phoebe Bridgers maneuver. She has a lot of tools in her toolbox, and humor is very much one of them. And so I just kind of clocked it as a laugh line before I even like got into the lore of it.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  Well, what I wrote about that line in my review is that it's the kind of joke that you would actually crack at a funeral.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Oh, 100%.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Maybe this is a little bit TMI, but when my father passed away, I mean, we're an Irish family, you know? Like, we were having some jokes.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Oh, my mom recited an entire Nichols and May routine from memory at my dad's.

• 9:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  You know, and we laughed uproariously.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  Have to lighten the mood a little.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, at my dad's funeral, the hearse actually arrived late from the funeral home, and we were all standing around joking like, oh, he's late again.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Typical.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  You know, I mean, because you have to diffuse the tension. And I think she's really good on this record in particular. There's a line in "The Governor's Waltz" that a lot of people have quoted. That line, I think, it's probably about the transition from her relationship with Paul Meskell to her relationship with Bo Burnham.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  I mean, suddenly, we're in "The Shining." She's having this moment of fame and success at this huge music festival, but then she's cowering like Shelley Duvall. And there's something inherently comic about Shelley Duvall, even the image of her, even in "The Shining."

• 10:35Speaker 03

  I think that's one of my favorite songs on the album, too, "The Governor's Waltz." I think the like waltzing, elegant, delicate production, I think, just suits her voice so well. And I think what she's doing with the songwriting on that song is so skillful, where she's chronicling this relationship and it falling apart. And every chorus, you know, has the same melody, but she's just changing the lyrics ever so slightly, which I think is something that Phoebe is especially skilled at of, you know, telling this bigger story with these simple lines. On that song, she says, the first time around, she says, "Let's see how long we can go without touching," then it becomes, "Let's see how long we can go without talking," and finally...

• 11:36Speaker 03

  And I just think the way that she's telling a story without being so verbose or overt with the lyrics, I love that.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  And honestly, think about other singer songwriters that have a lot of lore attached and how easy it is to interpret exactly what they're talking about. I'm not naming any Taylor Swift names when we're, as part of this exercise, but I think she's so deft and she's so, she is capable of being so economical in her phrasing. The song Haunted has this line, "I have no secrets, only feelings."

• 12:20Speaker 02

  The feelings are transient, whereas secrets are forever. Such a beautiful turn.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Well, we've got a lot more to talk about. We will be right back after this break.

• 12:33Speaker 00

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from AT&T. Right now at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with eligible trade-in. It has the ultimate pro camera system and a big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Connecting changes everything. Requires trade-in of $230 or more and eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit an AT&T store for details.

• 13:02Speaker 04

  This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini. Ever notice how every new AI tool asks you to explain your business to it all over again? Google Workspace with Gemini skips that. You get Google's AI built right into the premium versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and more. No new tools, no extra logins, just one subscription that gives you personalized AI right inside your actual workflow. Try Google Workspace with Gemini at g o o dot G L E slash Workspace with Gemini. This message comes from Angie. When it comes to home projects, it matters who you hire. Angie has been helping homeowners find skilled pros to get their home projects done well for over 30 years.

• 13:45Speaker 04

  Angie's nationwide network has experts in everything, from landscaping to roofing and more. Read verified reviews, see photos of past work and request and compare quotes to find your best price, all in one place. Download the free Angie app today or visit Angie.com. That's A N G I dot com.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Welcome back, Elle. Let's pick up with you.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  I was just going to say about the Governor's Waltz song, who you were saying about how like fans will really try to read into this. I think some lyrics from Governor's Waltz was mentioned in a review a week ago. And Phoebe's fans are really like reading into this and thinking it's such a scathing song, a scathing take at celebrity couples and that sort of thing. But I think when you listen to the song, it doesn't feel so clear like that. I think she's really masterful at complication.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  I also think, you know, as much as we're unpacking some of the nuances here, there are also moments of just clear joy. I mean, I think we've mentioned the song Bobby. I appreciated the range of emotions here, kind of reaching to just like totally swoony, joyful love songs. Kind of before people were hearing it, people were just talking about this, that the fact that this record was coming, a lot of the press was like, this is sad girl music. It's going to be sad girl summer. And if you're a sad girl, get excited for a new Phoebe Bridgers. But then you listen to this record and yes, there's a lot of grief on it. There is sadness. She's singing about the loss of her father and the loss of a relationship. But there is also, in addition to the humor we've talked about, just sheer, kind of

• 15:21Speaker 01

  almost over the top swoony joy. And it's still, even when it is as seemingly uncomplicated an emotion as, as that rush of new love, you have a line like, "This could be the end of wanting."

• 15:43Speaker 01

  Which I think is such a clever way to sing about new love, which seems so uncomplicated. But when you say, "This could be the end of wanting," you're letting in so much ambiguity.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  What I love about Bobby is the way she sings it. I had heard that she got a vocal coach during this, this lost weekend period. Phoebe Bridgers has never sung with her chest out so much. She's sung with like that kind of disinhibition. It's, it's a great rock vocal on that song.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think this was the most surprising track on the album to me, like hearing the, the production and also just like this kind of happy-go-lucky sound and lyrics. And I was reading an interview from a few years ago where she talked about how she finds it more challenging to write about happiness and that it's a bit out of her comfort zone and where she feels her writing is strongest. I think that she does it here. I think she does a great job singing about it and also still making it feel true to her, even with the Jack Antonoff production and influence, the line.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  I think that is, is so funny and so like, I think it captures the like rush of how intense falling in love can be. And it's just funny to have such like a dark line like that, that is like it kind of flipped into this love song with this production.

• 17:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I also think we should talk about Lost Boys, because that's the other really extroverted, like rock anthem song on the record. We've, we're living with that song for a while. But what's fascinating to me about that song is it kind of charts the next step for Phoebe Bridgers, in my mind. It really moves beyond autobiography. Yes, there is some autobiography in it, maybe. She's telling three different stories in the three different verses about three different lost boys. And you can read that song completely separate from any lore you have about her.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  And again, I love the way that song feels open to interpretation. It was, I heard it a bunch of times before I noticed, her voice kind of trails off in the chorus and she's saying, "Lost Boys, find me."

• 18:09Speaker 02

  She's a lost boy.

• 18:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  Or maybe she's Wendy from Peter Pan, whatever.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  Well, or maybe she's a magnet for broken people.

• 18:17Speaker 02

  All of those things, all of those things.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  I really want to come back to just how beautiful this record sounds.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  Just how pleasurable it is to hear a record that feels like this worked on, that feels this collaborated over and fussed over. I mean, it doesn't feel effortless, but they hide the seams of the effort very, very well. And it is just such a gorgeous record to drink in. And I just, I love the way that, you know, as people are kind of spending their first few days with this record, they can just kind of swim in the beauty of the sound, but then really start picking apart and unpacking the meanings beyond gossip.

• 18:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  You know, I've definitely felt, you know, over the course of this conversation, over the course of my many listens to this record of like, I want to know so much, but I also, this record is making me want to leave her alone.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  No, I hear you. I mean, I think there's this really fascinating way in which somehow she and her collaborators have made this vast universe that still feels private or intimate and, you know, internal. It's, it is such a feat, Stephen. And she also pulls off something that a lot of people are trying to pull off right now, which is she is culling from different styles of music and genre. You mentioned she has Nickel Creek on here, Caroline Shaw is on here. We've got indeed new classical music, electronic music, bluegrass. It's all here and it all melds and combines to make her sound. You know, when Joni Mitchell moved away from her blue period and her intense singer songwriter

• 19:52Speaker 02

  Laurel Canyon period, she got into jazz fusion. And I feel like this is sort of a similar leap for Phoebe where she's like, you know what, I'm going to try something new. And to me, the, the sound of this record matters way more than the lyrics, frankly. I mean, it is a new phase. I'm excited to see what comes next.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  So one thing that's been interesting in the run-up to this record is the question of like, how big is Phoebe Bridgers, right? Because there are a lot of different metrics that will tell you how big a star somebody is. There's streaming, there's radio airplay, there's sales, but there's also kind of the zeitgeist and the conversation. And that's maybe the hardest thing to measure. Like Phoebe Bridgers is not necessarily a massive, like chart-topping pop star, but a lot of people are talking about this record, right?

• 20:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think that Phoebe, I was, I was reading one writer's piece on this album and they were talking about this idea specifically and saying that when just normal things that an artist is doing throughout their day, mundane things that wouldn't be considered news for an average person, when those pieces become news, like that is when an artist is at a different level. And I think Phoebe is there. You know, you, you can hear her influence on so many artists' music and like be able to point to, that's Phoebe Bridgers, like that's her influence. And like even with working with all of these collaborators, like her voice is coming through the strongest.

• 21:18Speaker 02

  I think it's really important too, to think about what she was doing musically during these six years, because it wasn't a true lost weekend. She was in a trio that was one of the biggest acts in rock, folk, whatever you want to call, Boy Genius with Julian Baker and Lucy Dacus. And her musical circle was continually growing, her artistic circle was continually growing. Absolutely, Elle. She became the kind of celebrity who's, you know, Paparazzi victim. Right, right. You know, we saw Phoebe in a lot of baseball caps doing various walks to get coffee with people. We definitely saw that. But I think what matters for the record is that she entered

• 22:00Speaker 02

  a new level of connection and possibility with collaborators who we see on this record. Some of the collaborators on this record have been with her from the beginning, right? Like, her original producer, Tony Berg, is still a big part of this record.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  Ethan Gruska, Christiane Lee Hudson.

• 22:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. Right. But at the same time, the expansiveness of the credits reflects the expansiveness of her context as a musician, as an artist. And that, again, is very much like what happened to someone like a Joni Mitchell or a Carly Simon in the 70s. Their renown grew, their artistic currency grew over time. And that's what's happened with Phoebe.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  Well, and I think you're seeing her influence expand in real time.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  The more recent artist I would liken it to is Bon Iver.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm, yes.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  Where, like, Bon Iver became very successful, won Grammys, was certainly like, you know, playing in large venues. And that's, you know, one thing that's happening with Phoebe Bridgers is she's going from playing, you know, 5,000-seat venues to like 30,000-seat venues.

• 23:03Speaker 02

  Exactly. She sold out Madison Square Garden with like three days' notice.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:06Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 23:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's certainly a metric that tells you how big she's getting. But the influence to make that Bon Iver connection, it's not just that Bon Iver's records got bigger and grander and more ambitious and more successful, but they became enormously influential on people like Kanye West,

• 23:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  on people like Taylor Swift.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 23:24Speaker 01

  You know, I don't think Phoebe Bridgers is going to have as much impact on Kanye West.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  You never know.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Honestly, you'd never know.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  I feel like there might be a sneak influence of a Kanye West record, 808's and Heartbreak, which is also about the death of a parent on this record. That's just a side note.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  Oh, no, no, there are parallels. But I'm saying, as far as her influence, I mean, she is definitely having influence on other pop stars and is clearly your favorite pop star's favorite pop star, right?

• 23:50Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 23:51Speaker 01

  Like, you're going to hear echoes of this record, I think, on other records. The way you hear echoes of like the second Bon Iver record on a lot of pop, folk, R&B, hip-hop that has come out in the last 15 years. I think this is that kind of record.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers duet album, "Wed."

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Yes. Sufjan Stevens is another great example, though, of what we're talking about here.

• 24:16Speaker 02

  Definitely, definitely. I agree, she's entered that category now of the Sufjan Bon Iver. She's entered that category.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  I think we can agree everyone should hear this record.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  I think we're going to agree it's going to be showing up very high in year-end lists this year.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  I think it's probably my favorite album of the year so far.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  Up there for me.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  And I'm so glad.

• 24:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  Well, that brings us to the end of our show. Anne Powers, Al Manion, thanks so much for being here.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  Thank you so much for having us. So fun to talk Phoebeology. Yeah, thank you, Stephen. Thanks, Anne.

• 24:44Speaker 01

  This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Len and Sherburne, and Mike Katzif, and edited by our executive producer Barton Girdwood. And our showrunner is Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.

• 25:04Speaker 04

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini, one subscription that does it all. Personalized AI and premium business versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, and more. Try it free for 14 days at g o o dot g l e slash Workspace with Gemini. This message comes from Angie. Angie has been helping homeowners find skilled pros to get their home projects done well for over 30 years. For everything from minor repairs to major remodels, find reviews, pricing, and booking at angie.com or on the Angie app.