Punisher

Punisher is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, released on June 18, 2020, by Dead Oceans. It is the follow-up to her 2017 debut album, Stranger in the Alps. In the years prior to her sophomore effort, the California native also formed the bands Boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center. Punisher was recorded over a year and a half at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and reunited Bridgers with producers Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, who also engineered Alps. Its recording process was collaborative with its liner notes crediting over two dozen prominent musicians, including Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson, Jim Keltner, Blake Mills, and Conor Oberst. Punisher was supported by five singles "Garden Song", "Kyoto", "ICU", "I Know the End" and "Savior Complex". Upon its release, the album attracted acclaim from music critics, who celebrated its open lyricism. Background American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers rose to prominence in the late 2010s with a blend of subdued and specific songwriting that quickly garnered her a significant level of fame among indie rock fans. Bridgers grew up writing songs and playing guitar; a Los Angeles native, she attended its County High School for the Arts, where she studied vocal jazz. In 2017, she released her debut album, Stranger in the Alps, on Indiana-based indie label Dead Oceans. The LP received widespread acclaim from critics and peers; guitarist John Mayer heralded it as "the arrival of a giant". She rapidly became an in-demand performer, guesting on songs with the National, Fiona Apple, the 1975, and Jackson Browne. She formed the all-female supergroup boygenius with musicians Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, which released an EP in 2018. She also began collaborating with Conor Oberst, forming the band Better Oblivion Community Center; it released its debut, self-titled album in 2019. She also began closely working with singer-songwriter Christian Lee Hutson, going on to produce Hutson's debut album, Beginners, released in 2020. Ryan Leas, writing for Stereogum, observed that Bridgers' growing body of work—particularly before releasing a second album—was already "diverse and complex".