American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers leans into country and bluegrass on “Haunted,” track seven from her album “Lost Weekend,” with bluegrass group Nickel Creek and her Boygenius bandmates joining on backup.
This song grapples with fame from an unusually direct angle. Bridgers sings about applying makeup while stage lights come on, comparing them to candles on a cake, then delivers a warning underneath the imagery: “If you’re gonna make a wish then you better be specific, you’re gonna have to live it every day.” It reads less like complaint and more like hard-earned advice.
That honesty extends into how Bridgers talks about privacy too. She sings, “There is a difference between lying and deciding what not to say,” a line that captures how she has navigated public scrutiny as an openly bisexual artist whose personal life draws constant speculation. The song doesn’t resolve that tension so much as name it plainly.
Musically, “Haunted” marks a real departure. Bridgers has rarely leaned into her country influences on record, but the fiddle-driven arrangement here builds toward an unexpectedly joyful finish. She sings, “I am not afraid, you won’t have to open a heart that’s broken, water’s gonna flow either way, my heart is growing either way,” landing on hope rather than dread.
Her late father resurfaces here too, connecting “Haunted” back to “The Outside” and “Still Standing” elsewhere on the album – which line on this one hit you hardest?
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