Genre: Indie Folk Label: Dead Oceans Reviewed: January 7th, 2023

Rating: 7.6 ⭐

Stranger in the Alps, an album by Phoebe Bridgers, was released in September of 2017. The album consists of 11 songs with 2 added bonus tracks in the deluxe version. Bridgers received many positive reviews for this album, from Metacritic to Exclaim. Bridgers explored themes of intimacy and how relationships, whether it be romantic or otherwise, affect the way we view the world. The most notable songs are “Smoke Signals,” “Motion Sickness,” and “Scott Street,” which really hit home the themes being discussed. So what made these songs so notable and how are they important?
“Smoke Singals”, according to Genius, was a “was written as a love song to her now ex-boyfriend Marshall Vore.” An omonious feeling is present throughout the piece, with a haunting violin alongside a recurring guitar riff. This bass part is simplistic in nature, but it’s also repeated throughout the song. The main chorus starts with “You must’ve been looking for me, sending smoke signals,” stating that the other person has a hard time getting close to Bridgers. Later in the song, she sings, “The future’s unwritten, the past is a corridor. I’m at the exit, looking back through the hall.” which shows her looking back on the past relationship and coming to peace as she’s moving towards the future. While anyone can take meaning in any piece of work, this seems like a song about a person unable to connect with a lover and coming to terms with how everything went in said relationship. This song is a really compelling one and gives a hint into what the album’s overarching message will be.
“I hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid” is the opening line to “Motion Sickness” and this clearly isn’t about the same person. It is harsher, angrier, but still in the beautiful agony that is Bridgers’s music. Just like the person Bridgers talks about, the song itself is bitter. A repeated drum beat and alot of electric guitar. There are points within the song that feel like a weight comes weighing down on the listener with the strum of the guitar getting louder as the song progresses. It, in the words of Bridgers, is “emotional motion sickness.”
“Scott Street” is partly about Vore’s relationships with Bridgers, and partly about Vore’s relationship with another person. Genius states “the song also explores the strangeness of reconnecting with people from our past.” A lyric that really encompasses this meaning is “Do you feel ashamed, when you hear my name?” because it’s a reflective one. It could be taken like “Do you feel guilty when you remember me?”, which gives you a wave of regret just hearing it. The last lyric, “Don’t be a stranger,” is her trying to half-heartedly reconnect with the person being spoken about. So things aren’t as aggressive as “Motion Sickness” and not as distant as “Smoke Signals
The album uses the message and has creative ways of portraying that message, but stylistically it’s not her most prominent work. Truly though, Stranger in the Alps is not bad by any means. For anyone who is flexible in music and likes the simplicity, I highly recommend listening to this before any of her other works so that the listener can compare this with her more popular works. This album deserves a 8, but to be fair and considering everything that she made up to this point, it’s a 7.6. Thank you for reading.