Adrianne Lenker represents a sort of up to date American beatnik for those who eliminated the drug-fuelled debauchery. Raised in numerous Christian cults earlier than breaking out to dwell on the highway, she is a part of a protracted, fertile custom of nomadic artists like Sylvia Plath, whose pens are sometimes their solely reassuring firm. With songs that journey effortlessly throughout huge emotional landscapes, Lenker’s storytelling by no means raises the handbrake, manoeuvring commonly between themes comparable to misplaced love, childhood reminiscences and passing time. Her writing is akin to the highway itself; you’re by no means in a single place for very lengthy.
Returning along with her sixth solo report ‘Shiny Future’, the Massive Thief frontwoman achieves a newfound lyrical self-assuredness right here. Whereas her earlier albums ‘Songs’ and ‘Abysskiss’ usually recount Lenker’s previous insecurities surrounding misplaced love with a tinge of self-criticism (“Remind me easy methods to be liked by you?” she sang in 2018’s ‘What Can You Say’), ‘Shiny Future’ seems ahead with sturdy dedication. At this time, Lenker asserts on ‘Evol’, “You’ve gotten my coronary heart, and I need it again”.
The efficiency of Lenker’s storytelling is enforced by the album’s manufacturing; no track is spliced or overdubbed, usually captured on the primary take. On ‘Actual Home’, a sombre story of a childhood pet, her voice goes from quiet to loud as she steps away from the microphone earlier than swaying towards it once more. Right here, intimacy is created via the palpable movement of Lenker’s voice, which is uncooked and unveiled, neither coated by instrumentation nor manufacturing results.
Motion is the gasoline to ‘Shiny Future’ and rhythm the accelerator. ‘Disappointment As A Present’, a track about misplaced time, is underpinned by driving open chords and spine-tingling high notes woven collectively by the piano and violin. Later, we hear about love’s misdirection in ‘No Machine’, a gently flowing ballad marked by beautiful stringed harmonics, which tremble above the phrases “don’t know the place I’d go with out you”.
It’s been a decade since Lenker first started to make her mark along with her second album ‘Hours Had been The Birds’, and her route stays unclear. Nonetheless, it’s exactly this dislocation which wields large energy on ‘Shiny Future’. Very similar to her beatnik days on the highway, this album displays all of life’s twists and turns. It’s the proper soundtrack to a protracted automobile journey spent staring out of the window, craving for these you left behind: “The clouds are rolling by / The wind throughout my again I really feel the shiver” she sings on ‘No Machine’, “Drive round from city to city / To the ocean of your love I’m a river”.
Particulars
- Launch date: March 22
- Report label: 4AD
