Punisher
| Phoebe Bridgers
Punisher
Punisher is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, released on June 18, 2020 by Dead Oceans. Bridgers first established herself with her 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps, a widely acclaimed emo-folk effort. In the years preceding her second album, the California native formed the bands boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center, respectively. On Punisher, Bridgers' songwriting is somber and sardonic; deeply personal in nature, it explores topics like dissociation, manifestation, and fragmenting relationships. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
On her marvelous second album, Phoebe Bridgers defines her songwriting: candid, multi-dimensional, slyly psychedelic, and full of heart. Her music has become a world unto itself.
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Rolling Stone
If Punisher proves anything, it’s that whatever comes next for Bridgers, whether it’s making sense of her generation’s dark future that lays ahead, or finding ever-new ways to mythologize her own sadness, she’ll be more than well equipped.
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The Quietus
With her second album, Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers expands her sonic palette and sharpens her lyrical knives.
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The Line of Best Fit
With Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers has created a literary and musical triumph.
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Slant Magazine
The album ends with blood-curdling screams, until all the sound fades out and Bridgers’s voice is hoarse. The end of the world is a central detail on Punisher, an influence over the uncertainty that falls over these dark but gorgeous songs.
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Beats Per Minute
By the time she’s on the road again, she’ll be able to play to even bigger crowds than she ever has – but that also means there will be more ‘punishers’ than ever, too.
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Sputnik Music
It’s frustrating because none of the songs are bad. They’re all enjoyable on their own, but as an album, Punisher just doesn’t really go anywhere.
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NME
The NME cover star branches out from the downbeat alt-folk of her 2018 debut album, exploring millennial dread with a broader sonic palette.
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Under the Radar Magazine
Punisher continues her winning streak.
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EarMilk
Throughout the entirety of Punisher, Bridgers has cemented herself as one of the greatest singer/songwriters alive.
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Paste Magazine
The L.A. singer-songwriter’s sophomore album is noisier and more upbeat than her debut.
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musicOMH
Punisher is funny but serious, subtle yet obtuse, familiar and somehow simultaneously entirely unique. Even if in the final analysis it’s still not massively folky.
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Earbuddy
What else can I say about Punisher? It’s right up there in the album of the year territory. So, yeah, you need to hear it immediately.
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PopMatters
Bridgers encapsulates everything that's so successful on Punisher.
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mxdwn
Overall, Punisher shows and reaffirms how talented Bridgers is. The lyrics are deep hitting; the music is masterfully arranged. The album has a hold on the audience from the first to the very last note.
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The Wee Review
The young champion of melancholy returns with another quality album.
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Popdust
Three years after her solo debut, the L.A. folk singer goes bigger and better.
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Clash Magazine
‘Punisher’ is an immense album tackling the ugly and absurd sides to life with beauty, humour and self-awareness. It’s a unique reporting style and a key statement.
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Loud and Quiet
This is an awkward record in places, but then, so is Bridgers; her sheer force of personality remains her greatest asset, and it’s more than enough to carry Punisher over the line.
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Northern Transmissions
Punisher is a rare album. One that has been anxiously anticipated and also fulfills expectations on every level.
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Vinyl Chapters
This is erudite and earthy alt-folk-rock crafted with purpose and shot through with alienation, spiritual decay and anxiety. Bridgers spins everyday dilemmas into direct, confessional stories of love, yearning and displacement; Punisher is her most arresting statement to date.
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The Edge
Phoebe Bridgers' sophomore record allows us to exist between our dreams and reality.
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Recommended Listen
Phoebe Bridgers has a superhuman way of shouldering the burden of that pain with humor and unfiltered honesty that continues to prevail here on Punisher.
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No Ripcord
Over the past few years, it may have seemed like Bridgers was a team player, but on Punisher, she reannounces herself as a solo songwriter reaching her peak.
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The Standard
Soul-baring songs of beauty and profound sadness.
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Crack Magazine
It ends with a roar of bravery and a sharp intake of breath – a fitting last gasp for an album embracing an uncertain future.
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Stereogum
With Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers has assembled her own dazzling supporting cast. She’s shown the same guts and chops and precision as Smith did. Bridgers might not feel like Elliott Smith would want to talk to her. But she belongs in the conversation.
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Let it Happen
Written from top to bottom it is a fascinating stream of consciousness from a truly unique songwriter.
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Student Life
Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Punisher’ is a phantasmagorical masterpiece.
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Euphoriazine
Capturing such warmth with its tenderness and clarity, Punisher is an utterly special record showing us all that there is pure beauty in melancholia.
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Redbrick Music
Despite the angst that fills this album, Bridgers maintains the wit that characterises her. Her house may be haunted, but at least the ghost has a sense of humour.
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Bring the Noise
This album is intimate, as if Bridgers is sitting just across the bed from you with her guitar, singing in an empty room. Existential and deeper than you might immediately give her credit for, Phoebe Bridgers’ second album ends in cacophony with the lyric “the end is here,” repeated over and over an increasingly loud and chaotic instrumentation, followed by some heavy breathing and coughing. The apocalyptic feel is appropriate as heck, and Bridgers has done herself proud.
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Paste Magazine
The L.A. singer-songwriter’s sophomore album is noisier and more upbeat than her debut.
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The Telegraph
It may be only the 25-year-old’s second album, but this is a magnificently intelligent record that rewards close listening at every step.
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Vulturehound
Her previous work felt heavy and soaked in emotional heartbreak and questioning the existence she was placed in. Punisher still has these topics but feels like instead of singing them hunched over in a dark room, Bridgers is standing upright, and her eyes are wide open.
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When the Horn Blows
Phoebe Bridgers is ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. On Punisher, she gets both deeply dark and helplessly hopeful.
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DIY Magazine
As the record builds to a final cathartic hushed scream, 'Punisher' marks a clear step forward, but one that remains as fundamentally graceful as all that has come before.
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Montreal Rocks
A lot of this record lies on the feathered edge of fantasy and reality. It is a romanticized flâneur walk through a dreamscape city full of ghosts. Although it is full of feelings of contradiction, the album radiates self-discovery. Phoebe Bridgers is not just a Twitter fiend or an indie darling – she is an incredible storyteller in her own right.
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South China Morning Post
a contender for record of the year and it’s only June.
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Star Tribune
"Punisher" often feels like it's taking place on that hazy edge between dreaming and wakefulness, where words stick on the tips of tongues and everyday notions (Halloween, pay phones, stucco) seem suddenly surreal. Maybe that is why it makes a particular kind of sense in this moment, when we're all immobilized by existential dread and only able to travel in our dreams.
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Hotpress
Indie-rock star embraces the darkness on stunning second solo LP.
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Riot Magazine
Well-crafted and thoughtful, Punisher puts a hopeful spin on even the most dark and fragmented memories by taking you to another planet, even if it’s just for an hour.
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All Music
It's an album of shockingly self-aware explorations of dark feelings and Bridgers is more willing than ever before to throw herself headlong into the darkness.
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inews
Bridgers’ most autobiographical songs are often about relationships and almost every moment on the album is poignant and thrilling.
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Slug Magazine
Punisher is prismatic, an elaborate optical illusion that is slow to reveal its full spectrum of feeling.
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Sputnik Music
Phoebe Bridgers' strengths are on full display here. But her weaknesses are starting to show as well.
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The Northerner
“Punisher” is an album about imposter syndrome, depression and raw emotion and I wouldn’t want to cry along with anyone other than Bridgers.
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The Fire Note
The dreamy pop of Bridgers with its obsessive interest in honest expression, no matter how quirky feels like a perfect fit for these unusual times. Her music is the soundtrack for this age, and Punisher finds her and her musical friends striking just the right chord.
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Variety
an album she must know is one of the year’s best.
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The Minnesota Daily
“Punisher” is a perfect album for the moment. Bridgers, with her cunning wit and lyrical depth, created an album that explores the multitude of emotions we experience through our lives, through our emotional dilemmas and through our own navigation of the world.
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AV Club
Phoebe Bridgers is as anxious as the rest of us, but Punisher is still a soothing balm.
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The Spokesman Review
“Punisher” is a difficult album to encapsulate. It is brilliant, a truly rare work of lyrical and compositional genius. It grabs the tension Bridgers sees in life and drags it to the surface. It is coherent but diverse, harmonious but streaked with moments of wonderful dissonance.
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Gigwise
Creating a record that builds on her reputation as the best songwriter on the block while acknowledging the humorous and also political bent of her media presence, Punisher is a triumph in understanding and toying with expectations.
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Discovered Magazine
this is Phoebe Bridgers at her best, and whatever comes next will only be better.
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Set the Tape
Punisher is an exercise in restraint. As I said of her work in the opening, it does a lot with a little. Phoebe’s continued decision to strip everything off of what could easily go nuclear (often considering weight of subject matter) keeps everything fresh, and spares the listener burning out on misery.
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Our Culture Magazine
It’s an act of collective defiance – and Punisher is nothing short of a triumph.
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Usual Magazine
Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers might be one of the best sophomore albums I’ve heard in quite some time. It’s a journey into Bridgers’ mind; in fact, it almost feels as if she’s simply reading from her diary. But the incredible production and instrumentation, not to mention the guest musicians, take this album to the next level.
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