Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Boys: The Machine Killing Us

<p>Phoebe Bridgers is back with <em>Lost Boys</em>, her first solo music in six years — a song haunted by nostalgia, isolation, masculinity and the machines we carry in our pockets.</p><p>At its centre is a dark inversion of one of the most famous slogans in protest music. Where Woody Guthrie wrote “This Machine Kills Fascists,” Bridgers sings: “This machine is killing me.”</p><p>In this episode of <em>The Last Mixed Tape</em>, Stephen White explores what <em>Lost Boys</em> tells us about smartphones, social media, male loneliness and generations who no longer simply use technology, but have grown up inside it.</p><p>From the reckless young men haunting the song’s lyrics, to Bridgers’ phone-free Lost Tour and her attempts to rebuild a more direct emotional connection with audiences, this is a story about the machines built to connect us, the people getting lost inside them… and what happens when we decide to leave the machine at the door.</p><p>The song identifies the machine. The tour attempts to dismantle it.</p>