The love song Phoebe Bridgers wishes she had written
Phoebe Bridgers writes songs about love, but she rarely writes love songs. Rather than channelling the rose-tinted view of the world often experienced in the early throes of the emotion, she seems to prefer to focus on the messy and melancholic aspects of love. Pairing understated indie rock with tales of hurt and heartache, she became a leader of the so-called sad girl indie genre.
She charts shame and reconnection in ‘Scott Street’, emotional nausea in ‘Motion Sickness’, and a vampiric relationship in ‘Savior Complex’, but she rarely finds real, pure love in her songwriting. Perhaps that explains why Bright Eyes’ ‘First Days of My Life’ is the love song she wishes she could have written.
Divulging her pick to NPR, the Boygenius bandmate elected to shout out her previous collaborator Conor Oberst, who fronts Bright Eyes but has also worked with Bridgers in Better Oblivion Community Center. First released in 2005, it’s been almost two decades since ‘First Day of My Life’ became an indie folk classic, but it still stands up as one of the most beautiful and faithful love songs in modern memory.
Released as a single from the band’s sixth record, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, the track has become Bright Eyes’ most famous release, and for good reason. It’s characteristic of Oberst’s style, his declarations of love accompanied by guitars as soft as they are sublime. Though the understated instrumentation contributes to the song’s beauty, it’s the lyrics that make it such a coveted love song.
Oberst compares meeting his partner and falling in love with them to the first day of his life. “Yours was the first face that I saw,” he sings, “I think I was blind before I met you.” The singer finds a sense of purpose and meaning in his new-found love, in the ace of his partner and in the care they show for him.
The love isn’t one-sided, either. Oberst also takes on the voice of his partner, who feels exactly the same. “Remember the time you drove all night just to meet me in the morning?” he asks, “And I thought it was strange, you said everything changed, you felt as if you’d just woke up.” It’s a gorgeous metaphor, one that entirely captures the pure, carefree clarity of that initial fall.
Delivered with those twinkling guitars and a gorgeous melody, it’s easy to see why Bridgers wishes she’d had the idea first.
Revisit ‘First Day of My Live’ by Bright Eyes, the love song Phoebe Bridgers wishes she had written, below.
