Phoebe Bridgers “ICU” Lyrical Analysis

By Kayla Harper

**cover image art by Chris Riddell taken from the Punisher lyric book which comes with the vinyl edition of the album. Edited by myself.

 

**Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that I am not claiming to be right or wrong and simply expressing my own opinions. This is not what the song is about, but my own creative interpretation of an alternative meaning of its lyrics. Everyone is subject to their own thoughts and feelings, In fact that’s one of my favourite things about art, so please feel free to leave your own opinions in the comment section underneath articles!

 

Since I heard Phoebe Bridgers’s debut album, Stranger In The Alps, I have been captivated by her songwriting style.  Bridgers makes use of various figurative devices such as complex metaphors which make her lyrics interesting, poetic and emotionally deep.  If I were to write an article simply on the beauty of Bridgers’s lyrics, it would be far too long because every song has so much depth to uncover.  Therefore, I am going to go one song at a time.

 

Here is my personal lyrical analysis of “ICU”,  one of my favourite songs from Bridgers’s sophomore album, Punisher: 

 

THE TITLE: “ICU”

ICU  typically stands for intensive care unit.  Generally, the ICUs are a sector of hospitals which provide meticulous care for certain illnesses or injuries.   The significance of the title in relevance to the meaning of the song is figuratively clever on Bridgers’s part.  During the chorus she sings: “I feel something when I see you.”  This line suggests an alternative meaning to the song’s title “ICU”.  Perhaps, rather than referring to a literal hospital intensive care unit, Bridgers is describing the subject of the song’s care for her as an ICU would.

 

INSTRUMENTAL: 

Bridgers purposefully arranges the production on this song to musically explain the emotions it encapsulates. In the start it is generally mellow as she sets the first scene.  During the second verse, drums start to come in more prominently, picking up the energy of the song as its storyline picks up. Most significant is how the music builds up after Bridgers sings “I feel something when I see you”, Almost as if to mimic a heartbeat or heart monitor which would be amplified by the feelings this person evokes in Bridgers.  Alternatively, it could also relate to feelings Bridgers describes in the song such as “playing dead”  and suggest that this person can start her heart again; bring her back to life.

 

VERSE Ⅰ: 

“Laying down on the lawn / I’m tired of trying to get in the house / I’m thinking out loud.” 

Immediately these lyrics put an image in my head which correlates to a feeling, something Bridgers seems to do often within her writing.  The image of someone laying on the lawn, lacking the energy to get in the house translates to the feeling of watching or waiting for someone from the outside because you are too tired of trying to get in, or get their attention, possibly because of past trial and error.

 

“I’ve been playing dead my whole life / and I get this feeling whenever I feel good it’ll be the last time.” 

The act of playing dead is often done by prey when they sense a threat or predator is nearby, however, the predator usually does not notice the prey at this point.  When Bridgers sings: “I get this feeling whenever I feel good it’ll be the last time”, she reveals this sense of dread that comes with “good” things, supposedly because of the cliche that all good things come to an end.  Linking this idea back to the last lyric, we can assume Bridgers is “playing dead” to avoid the dread that comes with good feelings. Even though the good feelings, or predator, has not reached her yet, she is “playing dead” to avoid it entirely.  Thus, “laying down on the lawn”, not making an effort “to get in the house.”

 

CHORUS: 

“But I feel something when I see you now / I feel something when I see you.” 

However, despite Bridgers’s attempt at avoidance, as she watches this person from “the outside” she feels something.  These could be the good feelings described in the previous line, and perhaps the fact that this person makes her “feel good” is the reason she avoids them by “playing dead” because she’s scared it may end.  Additionally, as mentioned previously, there is also the comparison of this person or the feelings they evoke in Bridgers to the ICU.  In addition, the act of “playing dead” could reference depression and perhaps this person or the feeling they evoke brings Bridgers out of that depression.

 

VERSE Ⅱ: 

 

“If you’re a work of art I’m standing too close / I can see the brush strokes.” 

This is one of my favourite lines in the song because I feel like there is so much to unpack and various angles that can be taken.  In the second verse, the storyline relevant to Bridgers’s relationship with this person seems to progress.  Contrary to the beginning of the first verse where Bridgers was watching from the outside, now she is “too close” to this person.  Alternatively, maybe this line is just expressing how obsessively Bridger’s watches and analyses this person.  Bridgers reveals that she is “too close” to this person by describing them as a “work of art” then going on to say that she can “see the brushstrokes.”  She can see all that makes up this person, including their flaws.  Further, by describing this person as a “work of art” she is almost putting them on a pedestal or idolising them to some degree.

 

“I hate your mom, I hate it when she opens her mouth / it’s amazing to me how much you can say when you don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

The main inference that is drawn from this line is the blatantly obvious fact that Bridgers hates this person’s mom for being an ultracrepidarian.  However, I believe it can be unpacked further.  Bridgers explained to Rolling Stone that the lines “I hate your mom, I hate it when she opens her mouth / it’s amazing to me how much you can say when you don’t know what you’re talking about” were inspired by a time when she got into a fight with her ex’s mom about politics at Whole Foods.  Besides Bridgers’s personal inspiration for the lyric, it could apply to various experiences.

 

BRIDGE: 

 

“I used to light you up / now I can’t even get you to play the drums / ‘cause I don’t know what I want / until I fuck it up.” 

Bridgers explained that this song is about a relationship she had with her drummer, who she is friends with now and wrote the song with.  I believe the first lines, “I used to light you up now I can’t even get you to play the drums,” could mean that Bridgers used to bring out the better side of this person, but now that they have this distance between them, they can’t even do something they used to enjoy that brought them together.  The following lines have relevance to previous lines about avoiding and being scared of a relationship, “I don’t know what I want until I fuck it up.” These acts of avoidance or depression could be the reasons Bridgers could “fuck up” the relationship.  The line also correlates to the common phrase, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

 

OUTRO: 

“I’ll climb through the window again / but right now it feels good not to stand”

“Then I’ll leave it wide open / let the dystopian morning light pour in.” 

Although Brigers explained on X that these lyrics are about “when you’re locked out of your house but you’re too drunk to care, you know eventually you’ll have to break in but it isn’t urgent. It’s a continuation of the first verse, so in theory the whole song takes place in my head while I’m drunk on the lawn”, I think we can still delve into the initial interpretation of these lyrics established at the beginning of this article.

In the final lines of the song Bridgers cleverly brings the song full circle and we are back in the opening imagery of “laying down on the lawn…tired of trying to get in the house.”  I believe that because the end of the song circles back to where it began, it can be inferred everything in between the song was in Bridgers head.  The line “I’ll climb through the window again / but right now it feels good not to stand” infers that she has finally decided she wants to try to get this person’s attention; go into the house.  However, she cannot get in directly through the door; it’s not easy for her to try and be with this person, thus she takes the more difficult approach of sneaking in through the window.  However, the window is left “wide open” for quick escape.

 

As I said previously, this lyrical analysis is not factual and solely opinion-based.  I enjoy annotating lyrics and poetry to find different perspectives or meanings and sharing my findings with others.  Additionally, I also love hearing other listener’s interpretations so please feel free to share any comments or critiques in the comment section of the article!