“Moon Song” appears on Phoebe Bridgers’s 2020 album, Punisher. And like the album’s title, the song documents the painful reality of unconditional love. Though the lyrics are vividly detailed, they do offer a zoomed-out view of unhealthy relationships.
Produced by Bridgers, Tony Berg, and Ethan Gruska, Punisher follows the singer’s 2017 debut, Stranger In The Alps. And “Moon Song” offers a glimpse of one stranded in the geography of a cavernous and harsh romance. Still, one partner willingly returns for more punishment while the other continues to dish it out.
I Had To Carry You
Bridgers writes about caring for someone with low self-esteem. Her partner wants to walk her home, but instead, she supports him. And his despair is bottomless.
You asked to walk me home,
But I had to carry you.
And you pushed me in,
And now my feet can’t touch the bottom of you.
When someone is spiraling in waves of depression, they tend to be cruel to others around them, especially the people who are closest. But like a dog, she returns with unconditional love and, with it, emotional abuse.
Stuck your tongue down the throat of somebody,
Who loves you more.
So I will wait for the next time you want me,
Like a dog with a bird at your door.
The Killer Doesn’t Understand
An in-joke and a slam against Eric Clapton’s soft rock ballad, “Tears In Heaven”. (Clapton’s four-year-old son died after falling out of a high-rise apartment window in New York.) Regardless of how one feels about the song’s mawkishness, she acknowledges the unspeakable pain of Clapton’s loss.
We hate “Tears In Heaven”,
But it’s sad that his baby died.
And we fought about John Lennon,
Until I cried.
Here, Bridgers appears to use a metaphor of a small, dead bird. And how its killer cannot escape its nature. This is her partner’s cruelty operating blindly on instinct and character.
You are sick and you’re married and you might be dying,
But you’re holding me like water in your hands.
When you saw the dead little bird, you started crying,
But you know the killer doesn’t understand.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images