Elliott Smith, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen are some of Phoebe Bridgers's favorite singer-songwriters. The LA-based singer's debut album, Stranger In The Alps, is beautifully heart-wrenching. You might have heard some of her songs on TV and/or commercials - a 2014 Apple iPhone spot featured Phoebe's cover of "Gigantic" by the Pixies, and more recently, "Georgia," the song on this very album, set the mood for a scene in an episode of ABC's show Castle. Singing to a delicate backdrop of country/folk/rock instruments, Bridgers's introspective lyrics ("Jesus Christ, I'm so blue all the time / And That's just how I feel / Always have / And Always will) somberly detail how she is shaped by relationships, and the 11-track effort is a promising start to the artist following the footsteps of her aforementioned influences.

• black vinyl pressing
• double-sided lyric sheet insert
• digital download included
• music label: Dead Oceans 2017

reviewed by nakaveli 09/2017