Album Review: Copycat Killer by Phoebe Bridgers

The perfect EP to listen to while walking in the snow through campus, Copycat Killer by Phoebe Bridgers presents a distorted, winter version of some songs off of her album Punisher. This EP reworks some of Phoebe’s most iconic songs off of her last album, “Kyoto,” “Savior Complex,” “Chinese Satellite,” and “Punisher,” into almost ghastly versions of themselves. Stripped back and orchestrated, these songs turn Phoebe’s already depressing lyrics into an emotionally whimsical soundscape.

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The EP kicks off strongly by transforming Phoebe’s rock single “Kyoto,” into an encompassing ensemble with a slowed down tempo and a beautiful strings section that builds up throughout the song. The transition between the Copycat Killer version of this song and the Punisher version is one that resonates. This new version of “Kyoto” brings forth the ironically depressing lyrics that were being masked by the upbeat tempo in the Punisher version.

Transitioning into the next song off the EP, “Savior Complex,” reimagines another Phoebe Bridgers single into another magnetic and introspective song. The video for the original song, directed by no other than Phoebe Wallace-Bridge - in an ironic name play - shows Phoebe’s false sense of identity in helping, specifically a dog in the video. This song further plays on Halloween themes, which are present in many of Phoebe’s songs, as well as in her cover art and promo. Exploring death and the haunted seems to be a recurring theme in Phoebe’s music, which is made more apparent by the haunting resonance the Copycat Killer EP embraces.

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The Copycat Killer EP version of “Chinese Satellite,” on the other hand, seems to transform another solemn song into a more upbeat rhythmic ballad. Finally, “Punisher” closes the album with an intimate ode to Phoebe’s biggest influence, Elliot Smith. The lyric that inspires the EP’s title “A copycat killer with a chemical cut,” Phoebe references herself as a copycat killer, as most of her music is directly influenced by Smith’s. The “chemical cut“ part, Phoebe explains, ties to her bleached-to-no-return hair. This is something I, with my chemical burns on my scalp from bleaching so much, can sadly relate to. With Copycat Killer, Phoebe certainly brings us along an amorphous soundscape journey full of lust and longing. If you ever feel like crying, you now know what to listen to (or at least I do).

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