Six years on from her last solo album and it does not feel that Phoebe Bridgers has been away all that long. Between her work with boygenius and a constant sense of presence through other projects, the Punisher mastermind has gone about dealing with the spotlight in a manageable way. Lost Boys, the lead single of her third album Lost Weekend, is not so much a reminder of her status as a prominent singer-songwriter voice but a continuation of such feelings towards her work. There is a cyclical manner to most musicians now where the album, tour, break, over the span of two years is seen as the course you must follow. But not so. Lost Boys follows up a Sloppy Jane collaboration and a Christmas-themed EP. Aside from that and some work with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, little has come from Bridgers, yet she still felt like a presence in those absences. Lost Boys is, by account of a return alone, a welcome experience with the moment now lending itself to Bridgers.
The song too is of high quality, no surprises there given Bridgers’ track record. There’s a stripped-back appeal to Lost Boys that doesn’t just allow Bridgers to touch on affection and isolation, but remove herself from the standard set by her previous albums. A bit of brass here, a softer adaptation of acoustic tone there, it makes a huge difference. Bridgers ran the risk of leaning into that indie-adjacent sentimentality. While it remains in place in parts, there is at least an active attempt to move it along somewhat, and that’s what works about Lost Boys. This is a song not stuck in the artist’s past in the studio but certainly in the effect of others on her. Bridgers’ reflective tone and reminiscent moments do cut deep. That repetition of those titular lost boys and their inability to mature and grow is a wonderful assessment of a great number of people that the more dedicated listener will, indeed, speculate about. There’ll be those who believe in that parasocial way that Bridgers is speaking to them, too.
But that is the purpose of a song putting people down, isn’t it? Easy it is to connect with people through their shared heartbreaks and disruptions, Lost Boys at least feels sincere and marks a welcome return for Bridgers. Softly spoken but with that suffocating feeling of needing to claw at someone, somewhere, over the shortcomings they’ve been dealt. The “one, two, three…” scream into a repeated chorus doesn’t work and does more harm than good but it’s a strong return for Bridgers here. Plenty of string section delights and new instrumental flourishes to back those similar-sounding but sincere suggestions that come from contemplation. Lost Boys has nailed that but makes a few expected choices in how it puts together the tempo and tone of the song.
A fade-out feels almost inevitable and when it strikes it, like the count-in to a shout, feels expected. There’ll be more to come where Bridgers successfully buries those expected notions but, until those crop up, we’ll just have to accept them as part of the furniture. Bridgers has overhauled plenty enough with Lost Boys and evades the pitfall of being a copy-and-paste artist. It’s a relief to hear. She could’ve continued with the sound she left on Punisher but does not, and listeners are all the better for it. Similarities? Sure. But not enough to make it a reminder of what came before. There’s a nice passing of the torch from Bridgers to Bridgers here, who sounds far more confident in those left-field instrumental choices because she rekindled that instrumental confidence with boygenius and Sloppy Jane. That, and she feels the time is right to write more. The time is right. Lost Boys proves it.
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