Phoebe Bridgers has us wistfully staring out of windows once again with new single ‘Sidelines’
The saddest of the internet sad girls finally gives us a glimmer of romantic hope.
Photo: Press
Striking with another note of sadness-infused gold, Bridgers’ quietly powerful, vocoder-laced release for Hulu’s upcoming show Conversations with Friends — inspired by Sally Rooney’s debut novel of the same title — explores the concept of love as a phenomenon that ultimately proves to expunge existential apathy.
Knowing that Bridgers’ partner Paul Mescal starred in Sally Rooney’s first TV adaptation Normal People, this marriage of the two worlds will come as a delight for any self-respecting internet sad girl. If you’ve not yet seen Normal People and plan to, I’d suggest booking a mental health day in advance.
Following the tidbits of their relatively private relationship on Instagram over the past few months has been a salve to many a jaded millennial soul — don’t even get me started on seeing him interact with Phoebe’s pug Maxine. I’m not even a dog person.
Anyway, back to the point — the track manages to cover a broad spectrum of the human experience in a mere 4 minutes 24 seconds: from death to feminism, to isolation and back again. Describing the shift from someone who’s wholly unfazed by pretty much everything, to someone who finally finds the person who brings them out of their self-imposed “sidelines”.
Honourable mention to my favourite lines: “I’m not afraid of getting older / Used to fetishize myself, now I’m talking to my house plants”, which read like a comfort blanket to the rest of us also navigating the end of our 20s; a rare forgiving nod to growing older in a world that vilifies female ageing.