"Garden Song" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and ''Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclaim ...

. It was released through

Dead Oceans Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...

on February 26, 2020, as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from Bridgers' second studio album, ''

Punisher The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher made ...

'' (2020).

Composition and lyrical interpretation

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

ballad, "Garden Song" was produced by Bridgers herself alongside

Tony Berg Anthony Rains "Tony" Berg (born October 21, 1954) is an American musician, record producer, and A&R representative, in which role he has been described as an "industry guru". Berg's music career began in the late 1970s as a session guitarist who ...

and Ethan Gruska. The song features a "wave of shimmery

synths A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

" and "delicate, crushing vocals", with its lyrics depicting "a scene from a fairytale, one that includes a house resting on a hill with thousands of roses (and probably a few ghosts)". It has been described as "lush and wet" as well as "steeped in melancholy" as Bridgers "unravels past memories that anticipated growing up". Bridgers stated that the song was about "manifesting things the more you think about stuff" as well as " erown growth". The songwriting was stated to be "dreamlike and mundane", containing the lyrics: "The doctor put her hands over my liver / She told me my resentment's getting smaller". It also references her native

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

Music video

The music video for the song was released on the same day as the single, and it was directed by Bridgers' younger brother, Jackson. It depicts Bridgers "kicking back in her bedroom, ripping on a bong and hanging out with fuzzy creatures", with an appearance by comedian

Tig Notaro Mathilde O'Callaghan "Tig" Notaro (born March 24, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, radio contributor, and actress. She is known for her deadpan comedy. Her acclaimed album ''Live'' was nominated in 2014 for the Grammy Award for Be ...

Critical reception

Writing for ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'', Dan Weiss praised the complexity of the songwriting. Deeming the song "an understated rumination on lost time and complicated nostalgia", Quinn Moreland of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' praised its "slight arrangement" and Bridgers' "humor and storytelling idiosyncrasies". ''Pitchfork'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' listed "Garden Song" as the ninth and sixteenth best song of 2020, respectively''.

Charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 2020 singles 2020 songs Songs about flowers Phoebe Bridgers songs Songs written by Phoebe Bridgers Dead Oceans singles Folk ballads Rock ballads 2020s ballads