Punisher was recorded over a year and a half at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and reunited Bridgers with producers Tony Berg and Ethan Gruska, who also engineered Alps.

Its recording process was collaborative with its liner notes crediting over two dozen prominent musicians, including Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson, Jim Keltner, Blake Mills, and Conor Oberst.

American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers rose to prominence in the late 2010s with a blend of subdued and specific songwriting that quickly garnered her a significant level of fame among indie rock fans.

[4] Bridgers grew up writing songs and playing guitar; a Los Angeles native, she attended its County High School for the Arts, where she studied vocal jazz.

[9] Bridgers considered her efforts on Punisher nothing revolutionary but rather a breakthrough in combining her disparate influences: "how to reference a hundred things at once that I've always loved," she said.

[10] She noted that many contributors to the album appear because they were simply around Sound City at the time,[9] including veteran percussionist Jim Keltner—known for his work with Bob Dylan and John Lennon—who performs on two tracks, and musician Blake Mills, who adds to three songs on Punisher.

His death had a profound effect on Bridgers, who noted that "going home to an empty apartment was pretty fucked up" and that perhaps it worked its way into the darkness present on Punisher.

Conor Oberst, who sings in the song's second half, suggested she write about a conversation topic she brought up frequently: murders that have taken place at L.A.'s Dodger Stadium.

Many commentators singled out the couplet "We hate 'Tears in Heaven'/But it's sad that his baby died" as particularly memorable: these lines refer to guitarist Eric Clapton's account of his son's tragic death.

[9] She wrote the melody to follow-up song "Savior Complex" in a dream,[4] a folk rock and baroque indie pop waltz,[15][16] which carries on the subject of a difficult relationship.

Bridgers penned "Graceland Too"—a country-tinged, lyrical folk, and banjo-led ballad that sonically references her love of bluegrass[15][17][8]—on a trip to Nashville to visit her bandmates in boygenius, who later added vocals to the song.

[3][11] It debuted during a worldwide quarantine related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and amid a period of civil unrest in the U.S., with citizens protesting the murder by police of George Floyd and other people of color.

[32] Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky designated it with the publication's "Best New Music" tag, calling it "marvelous, [...] candid, multi-dimensional, slyly psychedelic, and full of heart.

"[30] Jonathan Bernstein from Rolling Stone called the work visionary, "eleven expertly rendered, largely downcast songs about broken faith, desperate, occasionally self-destructive love, and tenuous recovery.

"[13] NME gave the album a perfect score, writing, "The LA songwriter's ability to paint this lingering feeling of dread so vividly is perhaps the biggest factor in her rapid rise to cultish indie household name; just look at the state of the world right now.

"[33] David Sackllah of Consequence of Sound gave the album an A−, writing "Punisher beams with a restless energy and twisted dream logic that erupts into striking moments of clarity in a way reminiscent of the National's Boxer.

"[17] Alexandra Pollard from The Independent felt that Bridgers "sharpened and broadened her songwriting" on the album;[27] New York Times contributor Lindsay Zoladz designated it as a "critic's pick".

[7] Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic, highlighting the songs "ICU" and "Graceland Too" while summarizing the album's merits with the following statement: "If articulated depression is what you crave, does she have lyrical and musical detail for you—philosophical solace or melodic relief, no".