About three minutes into the latest episode of Spotify’s Under Cover podcast, Phoebe Bridgers called her mom. The singer-songwriter was trying to think of a word to describe the Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love,” but she was drawing a blank. “I think it’s ‘definitive,’” she said. “It would be great if I called my mom and she doesn’t pick up on this podcast right now.” She didn’t.
Bridgers claimed that the root of all her cover songs are the lyrics. “If you can unwrap it and at every level the lyrics are still amazing, that’s great,” she said. When it comes to the Cure’s 1992 hit “Friday I’m in Love,” Bridgers wrote the lyrics in her first school notebook. “I think I even made a little calendar for myself that incorporated the lyrics,” she laughed. She speculated she first heard the track on her iPod Shuffle, which was put on her library by a family friend. “That was very seminal to me and my music taste,.”
“‘Friday I’m in Love’ sounds like the best possible summer song,” Bridgers said. “It’s a very specific time and place for me when I heard it, so it’s hard to put into words why I connect with it so much and why the sound is so specific.” She noted the lyrics’ whimsical, nonsensical vibe and the chorus-guitar. “There are only couple songs that you can just hear and it’ll put you in a great mood,” she said. “And that’s definitely always been the case for this song for me.”
Towards the end of the episode, Bridgers’ mother returned her call. “I’m on Spotify right now and you’re on speaker!”