‘The Outside’ kicks off Phoebe Bridgers’ 2026 studio album, Lost Weekend, with the haunting, experimental track offering a hint at what's to come on the eclectic, personal record.

It seemingly finds Bridgers reflecting on her father's funeral, and examining the conflicting emotions that arise as a result of this. Bridgers has spoken in numerous interviews about how her father was abusive and struggled with substance addiction.

‘The Outside’ finds Bridgers singing through a vocoder, giving the song a cold, electronic feel, seemingly symbolising the sense of detachment as our protagonist attends a funeral. The composition remains minimal and sparse at first, with the song then building in intensity as Bridgers alters the scene from a funeral to a concert. Lyrically, this track is concise, with the song then exploding into a lengthy, jarring instrumental that captures the turmoil underlying this song.

The track seemingly opens with Bridgers attending her father's funeral, as she sings, “Crying in a suit and tie / But you should see the other guy / One more time for old time's sake / I'll watch him get carried away”. The line, “you should see the other guy”, is usually used when someone is injured and they're joking about being in a fight.

However, with the context that Bridgers’ father was abusive, this verse takes on a darker tone. The line “One more time for old time's sake / I'll watch him get carried away” feels like it has a double-meaning, denoting her father getting carried away when he was abusive, as well as his casket getting ‘carried away’ by the pallbearers.

Then, Bridgers shifts the scene, immersing the listener in a concert where she is crowd-surfing. The fist that was put through the drywall earlier in the song is now raised aloft, as she is cheered on by her adoring fans. However, there is an undercurrent of Bridgers’ tussle with her identity and sense of belonging, with the boygenius singer-songwriter admitting that whether she's at an uncomfortable, distressing funeral and or seemingly in her element at a concert in Ohio, either way, “When I am on the outside, watching / I am on the outside, watching”. This feeling of struggling with her sense of self recurs throughout Lost Weekend.

“Crying in a suit and tie
But you should see the other guy
One more time for old time's sake
I'll watch him get carried away
-
Fist through the drywall
I'm frozen in place
But not afraid
-
When I am on the outside, watching
I am on the outside, watching
-
I dive into the crowd
And they never let me hit the ground
Way beyond the barricade
Ohio carried me away
-
Screaming my ending
Fist in the air
You were there
-
But I was on the outside, watching
I am on the outside, watching”

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