A new Phoebe Bridgers era is imminent. Nearly six years after her sophomore album Punisher, she's popped back on the radar to perform shows in Roswell, NM and then Lubbock, TX. Now more new clues about the hopefully forthcoming follow-up have emerged via photos from a now deactivated link from Bridgers' publisher Blue Raincoat Music, which had "pblp3studioharrisonwhitford" in the URL. The now-viral photos capture Bridgers in the studio with a bunch of musician pals including Matty Healy, Alex G, Jack Anotonoff, and beau Bo Burnham.
If guitarist Harrison Whitford was the photographer, documenting the making of PB3, that would make sense. He recorded on Punisher and has been a part of Bridgers' touring band. He has also photographed her and boygenius over the years. Fans have done some sleuthing, and are presuming that the photos were taken late last year given Bridgers' darker hair and Healy's mohawk.
It's exciting to think that the musicians in the photos were apart of whatever Bridgers has cooking, especially since most of them have already worked with her. Bridgers, in 2018, covered Alex G's "Powerful Man." A couple years later, she worked with Healy for the 1975's Notes On A Conditional Form, and he's joined her onstage a few times since then. A couple years after that, Bridgers (along with boygenius' Lucy Dacus) performed with Healy, Antonoff, Christian Lee Hutson, and many others at the Ally Coalition Talent Show. She sang on Lorde's Antonoff-produced "Fallen Fruit" in 2021 and an Antonoff-produced Carpenters cover for the Minions: The Rise Of Gru cover soundtrack the following year. Hutson is in some of the photos too; he co-wrote several songs on Bridgers' second album, 2020's Punisher, and she produced or co-produced his three most recent albums. At this weekend's pop-up shows, he backed her on guitar. Also in the photos are Antonoff-affiliated recording engineer Laura Sisk and Punisher producer Tony Berg. Let the speculation begin.
