The CHIEF September 2026

ALBUM ALBUM REVIEW REVIEW

Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers

By Nevaeh Lee

After a three-year-long hiatus left fans wondering whether she’d ever return to music, indie rock artist Phoebe Bridgers released her third studio album, Lost Weekend . Despite how specific Phoebe’s music is to her own experiences, she still manages to appeal to a wider audience. Songs like “Kill Me,” “Never Going Back!” and “The Governor’s Waltz” resonate with both frequent listeners of her music and social media at large. My personal favorite songs from the album are the three I just mentioned! ‘Kill Me’ is understood (in the context of Bridgers’s personal life) to be about anxiety surrounding vulnerability in relationships. To me, it rang true as a song about anxiety and perseverance, especially the namesake line “This is gonna kill me / wait,” representing how sometimes things and situations that we think will dramatically impact our lives can often be small blips in time. The song took social media by storm; people began to share their own challenging experiences and how they overcame them with the song playing in the background. “Never Going Back!” read as a bittersweet declaration to me when I first listened to it. On one hand, time passing and life changing is natural. We cannot avoid the fact that the world will continue to spin. On the other hand, it’s awesome to think that you won’t have to go back to bad situations or points in time. “The Governor’s Waltz” is another song from Lost Weekend that’s full of witty references and allusions. For example, the song’s title is a reference to the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York, where she performed during the events of the song. Lyrics like “You deserved better / You wanted me” and “Being myself wasn’t easy / Do it for me” struck a poignant chord with listeners, myself included. Overall, Bridgers’s 2026 album is full of emotionally moving lyrics and captivating melodies, and would, in my opinion, be a top contender for an Album of the Year nomination.