By Tish Melton
Folk lyricist Adrianne Lenker gifted fans last month with her third studio album release, Bright Future, a combination of introspective and outward-looking songwriting and a seamless mixture of childhood and adulthood memories culminating in a raw and emotionally intense listening experience.
Real House
Lenker’s undeniably piercing lyricism begins with the first chord of this soundscape and ethereal opening track.
She emphasizes the contrast between the freedom that being a young girl entails, and the caged nature of being trapped in those memories later in life.
(“I’m a child humming / into the clarity of black space / where stars shine like tears on the night’s face / blue cool wind.”)
Lenker recalls many of her firsts (“When I was seven / I saw the first film that made me scared / And I thought of this whole world ending / I thought of dying unprepared”) and connects this universal feeling to how she feels now through her connection with her mother. In the sadness we discover as young children and inevitably continue to feel as an adult, we crave maternal comfort.
(“Mama, what happened? / I never thought we’d go this long / Now, thirty-one and I don’t feel strong / And your love is all I want.”)
Free Treasure
In this self-reflective, guitar-led track, Lenker discovers what real love feels like, and after years searching for it in complicated feelings and scenarios, she finally finds it in the mundane.
(“You’re cooking dinner / It’s gettin’ around half-past-ten / I haven’t smelled food so good / since I don’t know where and I don’t know when.”)
When recognizing that love should simply make you feel good, this track turns into a love letter to whoever sparked this realization
for her.
(“You show me understanding / patience and pleasure / time and at-
tention / love without measure.”)
Making this song all the more relatable, Lenker also highlights that despite the good place she’s in with her partner, she has doubts and insecurities nonetheless. (“There’s a guy on the nape of my neck and he hangs out there all day / He quantifies my every thought / and tells me not to play.”) Contradicting these feelings, however, is the comfort of Lenker’s partner, who listens to whatever she has to say. (“We lay around for hours / talking about childhood pain / Mom and dad and past lives too / I can tell you anything.”)
Evol
Your first listen to this track may be confusing.
Lenker turns to an almost poetic-like songwriting style in which she, to put it plainly, spells words backwards.
The track gains its title from the first line (“Love spells evol, backwards, people”), and from there Lenker admits the cruelty that people and love can bring by returning to the same refrain: (“You have my heart / I want it back.”)
In a way that almost seems as if she’s pointing fingers, Lenker highlights that the nature of humanity is selfishness, shown in the inherent evil of language. (“God, dog, devil, lived / The giver takes, the taker gives.”)
With Evol, Lenker turns simple word play into commentary on the human condition. Yet again, she showcases her brilliant songwriting ability and emotional intelligence that never fails to translate into the art she creates
The Mainsheet 