Kyoto by Phoebe Bridgers was released as a part of her 2020 album Punisher. It is one of the most interesting pieces in her entire repertoire because it manages to be exactly her style while also being completely the opposite.
Phoebe Bridgers writes music that is almost always reminiscent of folk songs as well as music that is incredibly haunting. But haunting doesn’t mean sad, though, a fair amount of Bridgers’ work feels like an embodiment of despair. Haunting can also mean music that is wry and honest and inherently pessimistic because of its honesty.
Motion Sickness which examines the experience of being with a terrible partner, knowing their bad for you, and wanting them anyways goes – “I have emotional motion sickness/Somebody roll the windows down/There are no words in the English language/I could scream to drown you out” – which is horribly depressing in its sincerity.
Circling back to Kyoto, this song breaks the haunting, folksy, mold that Bridgers’ built for herself by being her first song that genuinely sounds like a pop/rock song, with the trumpets being a complete surprise for a Bridgers fan. If you don’t listen to the lyrics, you could almost mistake the song for being upbeat. However, it is the lyrics that give this song away by being incredibly specific and yet somehow still emotionally devastating – “To park at the Goodwill/And stare at the chemtrails/With my little brother/He said you called on his birthday/You were off by like ten days/But you get a few points for tryin'” – no one could ever accuse Phoebe Bridgers for writing songs full of platitudes or generalities.