Phoebe Bridgers shared “Garden Song” earlier this year, which represented her first solo material since her 2017 debut album Stranger In The Alps. That was certainly a sign that more was to come, and now, more has: Bridgers has announced that her sophomore solo album, Punisher, is set for release on June 19.
She also shared a clip for the new song “Kyoto.” The original plan for the video was to shoot it in Japan in March, but when that trip was canceled, she decided to make the video with a green screen. Bridgers says of “Kyoto”:
“This song is about impostor syndrome. About being in Japan for the first time, somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and playing my music to people who want to hear it, feeling like I’m living someone else’s life. I dissociate when bad things happen to me, but also when good things happen. It can feel like I’m performing what I think I’m supposed to be like. I wrote this one as a ballad first, but at that point I was so sick of recording slow songs, it turned into this.”
This is Bridgers’ first solo album in a few years, but she’s not going about it alone. In fact, Punisher features contributions from members of Better Oblivion Community Center and Boygenius: Conor Oberst, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker all feature on “I Know The End,” while Oberst also guests on “Halloween,” and Dacus and Baker contribute to “Graceland Too.” Bridgers is also joined by her band (Marshall Vore, Harrison Whitford, Emily Restas, and Nick White) and guests Blake Mills, Jenny Lee Lindberg, Christian Lee Hutson, Nick Zinner, Jim Keltner, and Bright Eyes’ Nathaniel Walcott. The album was also made with her Stranger In The Alps collaborators Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska.
Listen to “Kyoto” above, and below, find the Punisher art and tracklist.
1. “DVD Menu”
2. “Garden Song”
3. “Kyoto”
4. “Punisher”
5. “Halloween”
6. “Chinese Satellite ”
7. “Moon Song”
8. “Savior Complex”
9. “ICU”
10. “Graceland Too”
11. “I Know The End”
Punisher is out 6/19 via Dead Oceans.