Phoebe Bridgers‘ music feels like it’s ripped straight from her head, the candid and well-thought lyrics tinged with a bit of blood from the pain she’s been reconciling. It’s also her heartfelt delivery that makes her one of the most recognizable rock acts—not to mention her unmistakable skeleton uniform. Today, she’s shared a cover of Tom Waits‘ “Day After Tomorrow” with the same kind of affecting performance that makes it seem like the track’s lyrics were taken from that same part of her brain that gave us Punisher last year.
“Day After Tomorrow” takes the perspective of a soldier away at war who’s coming back home, wrestling with the acceptance of killing other people for a national agenda. “I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel / About all the blood that’s been spilled with God on his throne,” she sings quietly. “You can’t deny, the other side don’t want to die anymore than we do / What I’m trying to say is, don’t they pray to the same God that we do?” Fuck.
You could consider “Day After Tomorrow” a Christmas song if you like; there’s a bit where a choir sings “Silent Night” over jingle bells. It follows Bridgers’ tradition of releasing a holiday song where the profits go to charity—this year, the proceeds for her Waits cover go to the International Institute of Los Angeles’ Local Integration & Family Empowerment Division, which provides refugees, immigrants, and survivors of human trafficking with the resources they need to become self-sufficient and start new lives in Southern California.
Listen to the track below, and find more info about the IILA here.
