never really bought into her whole thing (stranger in the alps was cool) and this song doesn’t seem to be changing that
Gotta say. This song stinks. Sounds like a crappy throwaway she had to write for a movie soundtrack or something. Head scratcher.
She's so fucking good man. Love the song. It finally clicked when I listened on headphones and I'm a believer. She's such a wonderful storyteller
My take on this whole Marshall thing is I draw my line at either sole artist in question doing something or outright defending someone who did something, neither of which Bridgers has actually done. She just gave a scumbag a shared writing credit along with a bunch of other people for reasons that are unclear at the moment. Marshall was like one of a half dozen people to get writing credits on Lost Boys, even Bo got a credit on that song. Writing credits can mean a little or a lot. We don't know how much or little he was involved. We don't even know if parts of those songs were from drafts pre-allegations she has been cooking on for awhile and she is contractually legally obligated to credit him on. Writing credit doesn't necessarily mean she willingly consented to it if there are legal things involved. It's unfortunate but it just isn't enough concrete info and too many plausible reasonable explanations to say "fuck her I am done listening forever " for me yet. If it is for you though that's fine. I am not never listening to Phoebe again because some piece of shit wrote the drum parts for 5 demo tracks 3 and half years ago or something. After the Jesse Lacey stuff came out I didn't listen to BN for years and years despite already just buying Science Fiction and merch, and that band being so important to me growing up, so I can definitely get there, I just don't think we know enough yet about the circumstances currently for me to make that jump. There could be a multitude of reasons he got like 1/7th a writing credit on 50% of the tracks that doesn't equate to "she is willingly palling around with and condoning predators!".
Ehhhh…Again, I’m not trying to be a wokescold or anything, but Marshall has been involved with everything Phoebe, including boygenius and recent stuff that she’s had a hand in like Maya Hawke and Christian Lee Hutson. He is one of the most consistent parts of her career and songwriting group. For me, it’s something to reckon with and just say that she’s working with and will likely continue to work with a piece of shit and I’m still going to listen when she releases new stuff. As said, we do it here with a lot of bands. We draw our own lines and it’s totally valid if people say they’re out because of it.
to add to this, the leaked press and BTS photos for this album explicitly show Marshall hanging out in the studio with her. so i don't think the songs she wrote with him were simply leftovers from the supposed end of their friendship. if anything, it's probably indicative of their friendship still being strong. maybe she'll distance herself from him one day, but i'm not giving her the benefit of the doubt.
Phoebe deserves zero benefit of the doubt in this situation. A hypocrite through and through. But yeah listen to what you want I guess
She has given us no reasons to believe she isn't working with him again (like a statement distancing herself) and many reasons to believe she is (the photos, the songwriting credits) so why on earth would I give her the benefit of the doubt here lol
I honestly don't think there's a concrete enough statement for the media to pick anything up. I don't want to call the allegations vague, but weren't some of them posted anonymously on like Tumblr or Reddit, and now a victim referring to it on their Substack without going into details? None of that means it didn't happen or that it doesn't have merit. I just don't think it was as cut and dry as someone posting directly on socials or going to the media and saying "this is what happened to me."
I believe that is the problem with the Brian Bell allegations as well. It's not that the allegations are unbelievable when they're anonymous -- I don't have a hard time believe either of these men could be a predator around fans/young women/girls -- but when there's one or two Twitter threads lacking specifics and not much else to draw from...I think the media is just more likely to pick up allegations with some level of substantiation, for better or for worse.
If you google "Marshall Vole allegations" this site's Phoebe thread is in the top of the first page. That's probably a good indicator not a lot of people are talking about this. It's literally just us, the Phoebe Subreddit and Tumblr.