So far, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers is known primarily for one 7" single ("Killer," released in 2015 via Ryan Adams ' label) and opening slots on occasional tours, most recently for Conor Oberst . But she seems due for a major breakthrough this year, not least because every song the 22-year-old has put into the world — all three from the 7" and now a new single called "Smoke Signals" — is consistently, strikingly beautiful.
Like fellow rising stars Julien Baker (with whom she's toured) and Julia Jacklin , Bridgers immediately presents as a formidable talent: She's got a voice powerful enough to command any stage, but with intimate phrasing that cries out for late-night drives and walks under headphones. In "Smoke Signals," she crams a relationship's worth of emotions, milestones and small details — a week in the wilderness, the deaths of Lemmy and Bowie , the scene surrounding a Holiday Inn — into five and a half slowly but powerfully unfurling minutes.
"Smoke Signals" has also spawned a gloomy, vaguely unsettling video, which Bridgers describes as "pretty much just a drawn-out version of a couple scenes from Carnival Of Souls, but instead of random dead dudes, it's all my friends. I paid them in pizza. We shot it at the Masonic Hall in Highland Park, which is the coolest place ever. I'm still bummed we didn't get a shot of the secret door in the wall that opens into this weird tiny room."
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