HOT TAKE: there has never been a song with more perfect lyrics than ‘Smoke Signals’ by Phoebe Bridgers. There may be a few equals, but none better.

Baked into this evaluation is a full awareness of Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Cole Porter, the sonnets of one W. Shakespeare, etc., etc.

‘...just long enough to Walden it with you / any longer it would’ve got old...’

The perfect economy of using ‘Walden’ as a verb to tell a story of their week in the cold while slyly acknowledging the fact that Walden’s performative escape was sort of bullshit.

‘...sleeping in my bed again / getting in my head and then...’

Perfect internal rhyme and rhythm, perfect depiction of decompressing from an intense time with an intense person.

‘... one of your eyes is always half-shut / something happened when you were a kid...’

Literal truth, maybe, but also a perfect description of how every damaged adult feels: my eyes are half shut because of something that happened as a kid.

‘"How Soon Is Now" in an '80s sedan/ you slept inside of it because your dad / lived in a campground in the back of a van.’

Perfect repurposing of a song that sounds so sad now that ‘Now’ has become ‘Then’ and Morrissey has become... whatever Morrissey is.

‘...It's been on my mind since Bowie died / just checking out to hide from life...’

Who doesn’t sort of feel that Bowie dying was the beginning of the end times that we are now fully immersed in? Perfect.

‘... You are anonymous /
I am a concrete wall.’

End of song. Full stop. Perfect.