Album Review: songs

There are few voices in the indie music sphere right now more captivating than Adrianne Lenker’s. 

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you’ve heard of her band, Big Thief, the Brooklyn-based quartet who broke onto the scene in 2016 with their critically-acclaimed debut album Masterpiece. Since then, the group has released three full-length LPs— Capacity in 2017 and U.F.O.F and Two Hands in 2019— and Lenker has put out two solo albums of her own— abysskiss (2018) and songs (2020). (So it’s safe to say she’s been busy.)

Adrianne Lenker, photo by Genesis Báez

Lenker recorded songs in the spring of this year, in a one-room cabin in the woods of Western Massachusetts during the early days of the pandemic. She had escaped to the woods seeking a safe haven where she could recover from various disappointments that had recently arisen in her personal life, such as a canceled tour and a broken heart.

songs’s beauty lies in its ability to perfectly encapsulate the nuanced intricacies of human emotion in such a bare-bones, simple fashion. Lenker wrote nine of the eleven songs on the spot, and recorded the entire album using only her voice and an acoustic guitar. Most of the songs’ intros and outros are characterized by the soft strum of guitar strings and the occasional hollow pitter patter of rainfall or rustling of leaves in the background. The ambient nature sounds carefully layered over simple, almost austere melodies grant the listener a fully immersive auditory experience without drawing attention away from the rawness or intensity of Lenker’s lyricism. Its understated transitions make for a progression that feels remarkably fluid and natural yet unwaveringly intentional; each track seamlessly ties into and expands upon the themes of its predecessor without ever feeling repetitive or unnecessary. 

The opening track, “two reverse,” is like a gut punch and a warm embrace all at once. Lenker manages to tackle sadness, longing, nostalgia, intimacy, isolation, introspection, and the search for beauty and purpose where there appears to be none— all in the span of a mere 64 words. The second track, “Ingydar,” feels more like a sort of patchwork quilt in song form— fragments of memories haphazardly stitched together to compose a singular cohesive whole. Lenker’s lyrical mastery truly shines in the verses & pre-chorus as she explores and reckons with the cyclical nature of life and death:

Fragilely, gradually and surrounding

The horse lies naked in the shed

Evergreen anodyne decompounding

Flies draw sugar from his head
—

His eyes are blueberries, video screens

Minneapolis schemes and the dried flowers

From books half-read

The juice of dark cherries cover his chin

The dog walks in and the crow lies in his

Jaw like lead

The song comes to a head at the chorus, a couplet which echoes the overarching sentiment of its verses: “Everything eats and is eaten / Time is fed”. The ensuing track, “anything,” follows a similar lyrical trajectory as Lenker continues to flex her dexterity with turn of phrase via lines like, "Staring down the barrel of the hot sun / Shining with the sheen of a shotgun.” Despite being a breakup song, “anything” is actually one of the rarer more upbeat moments on the record. The track stands out due to its discernible pickup in tempo and uncharacteristic levity in tone: 

I don’t wanna be the owner of your fantasy

I just wanna be a part of your family

— 

And I don’t wanna talk about anything

I don’t wanna talk about anything

I wanna kiss kiss your eyes again

Wanna witness your eyes lookin

“anything” is Lenker’s personal recount of her recent breakup, followed by “forwards beckon rebound” and “heavy focus,” which reveal the emotional turmoil Lenker experienced in the aftermath of said breakup. The sixth track, “half return,” follows Lenker as she returns to her hometown only to discover that it no longer feels like home: 

Minneapolis soft white snow

35 bridge, hometown

Half return, half return

-

Standing in the yard, dressed like a kid

The house is white and the lawn is dead

The lawn is dead, the lawn is dead

“half return” is a personal favorite of mine; I think it appeals to me because mourning the loss of youth, romanticizing the past, and longing to return to a place that no longer really even exists anymore— at least not in same the way that it once did— are all part of the universal experience of growing up, a process I’m currently undergoing right now.

The next track, “come,” is a poignant glimpse into Lenker’s mind as she seeks to reconcile herself to the concept of her own mortality. And if “come” is a reckoning with death, then “zombie girl,“ “not a lot, just forever,” and “dragon eyes” are all celebrations of life and love, with Lenker looking back fondly on past relationships and experiences and meditating over the ways in which they’ve shaped her. The closing track, “my angel,” is a decisively satisfying conclusion to the 39 minute rollercoaster that is songs; “my angel” is Lenker’s ode to hope and optimism and rebirth and nature and beauty and acceptance and divine justice and and finding purpose and finally coming into one’s self. 

Ironically enough, songs doesn’t feel like a collection of eleven separate songs. Rather, the LP feels like one long song, almost a manifestation of Lenker’s stream of consciousness as she attempts to navigate through the trials and tribulations of life during unprecedented times— something pretty much everyone alive in 2020 can relate to. Songs is a tale of hardship and sorrow and grief and loss, yes, but it is also a testament to the human capacity for resilience and growth in the face of all possible odds, which is truly a beautiful thing.