Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief): Songs & Instrumentals (2LP) [4AD]

Why you'll love it

Two records in one 2LP set: the 11 aching acoustic songs of Songs ("anything", "forwards beckon rebound", "not a lot, just forever") plus the two long, meditative pieces of Instrumentals. The Big Thief singer made it alone in a one-room cabin in western Massachusetts.

This edition

• 2LP set: Songs on one LP, Instrumentals on the other
• Recorded on analogue 8-track in a cabin in the Berkshires
• 4AD pressing (cat# 4AD0302LP)

About the album

Adrianne Lenker has been crankin' out solo records since she was 14, loooong before Big Thief was a thing. If there's a fan favourite, however, it would seem to be Songs & Instrumentals, which is actually not one album but two (Songs and Instrumentals, duh, her fourth and fifth solo offerings), both out on 4AD on Oct. 23, 2020. It's a painful lo-fi breakup record and a bit of a "hard go," but ... well ... we don't necessarily go to Adrianne Lenker for "easy" listening, do we?

Taking a page from Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, Songs & Instrumentals was recorded at a remote woodland cabin (this one a pine shack in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts) while Lenker nursed a broken heart during COVID-19 times. It was almost recorded directly to cassette until someone brought her an 8-track, levelling it up from "no-fi" to something that doesn't sound like it was recorded on a cassette in the woods, but it's still as raw as it gets: 11 aching acoustic tunes on the Songs side, two lengthy improv pieces on the Instrumentals end. One of them, "music for indigo," was written for her former partner to fall asleep to, and the rain, the wind, the wood stove and the chimes on her front porch all found their way onto tape. You know where this is all going. It's good to feel sad sometimes.

Also at Kops: more Adrianne Lenker on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On 4AD (cat# 4AD0302LP), first out in 2020.