Phoebe Bridgers’ debut album Strangers In The Alps came out in 2017, and just over two years later, it’s hard to imagine the indie songwriting world without her. Following up her solo album, she released an EP with Boygenius — alongside Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — in 2018, and then at the top of 2019 released a surprise collaborative album with Conor Oberst as Better Oblivion Community Center.
After spending most of last year on tour with that project, she has returned with “Garden Song,” her first new solo material since her debut album came out. The song has an insistently strummed guitar melody and surrealist lyrics about California, which are accompanied by a video directed by Phoebe’s brother, Jackson Bridgers. In the clip, a pajama-clad Phoebe — who does not regularly smoke weed at all, ever — takes a huge hit off a bong and settles in to see what will happen next.
A hooded figure who looks like death, fuzzy one-eyed monsters drift in and out of the bleary frame, all while Phoebe attempts to continue singing the song into the camera. Two men in skeleton suits eventually join, and begin kissing in front of Phoebe — and a whole lot more.
Watch the “Garden Song” video above to get a taste of the playfully absurd concept.
