“You have my heart / I want it back,” sings Adrianne Lenker on Evol – one of the many songs on her latest solo album, Bright Future, centred on love and the conflict that comes with it.
Either side of conquering the “big indie” stratum as leader of Big Thief, Lenker has carved out a catalogue of fine solo releases, including gateway records to her band’s most impressive moment, U.F.O.F., in Hours with Birds (2014) and Abysskiss (2018). Following the latter, Songs was arguably the light at the end of the tunnel for Lenker’s most fervent followers during the lockdown period.
From the title to its length, Big Thief’s 2022 LP, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, was equal parts bombastic and ambitious. Gaining plaudits from the usual suspects, perhaps an unpopular opinion, however it felt like bridge too far, with few blows landed in what to me was the band’s first misstep.
Despite this, Lenker’s mystical powers still flickered throughout an otherwise bloated affair, and if this alongside preceding works wasn’t enough proof of her ability as one of the most talented songwriters on earth today, then Bright Future removes all doubt.
The mesmerising storytelling abilities that were the vital pillars to Big Thief’s early offerings, Masterpiece and Capacity, are prevalent during Bright Future. In many ways, Lenker goes beyond both with her best songs yet.
Like Masterpiece and Capacity, Lenker’s approach on Bright Future is skeletal, untangling the complexities of life with simplicity. It’s songwriting from the highest drawer, as Lenker – a true master of metaphor – parts with tales like the literary greats whereby the words drip off the page.
The evidence is clear on opening song, Real House. An aching, piano-led ballad that scratches across weathered floorboards. Lenker takes lo-fi to the masses, with a song that’s like a knife through the heart (“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”). While she has always maintained a directness with her songs, this is Lenker at her most poignant and brittle.
Even when most of her modern-day contemporaries are aiming to break through the barriers that lead to stadiums and arenas, Lenker’s songs still hold that candlelight quality and coy intimacy. Take Sadness is a Gift – seamless Americana tailor-made for late night A.M radio and roadhouses (“The seasons go so fast / Thinking this one’s gonna last”).
Adrianne Lenker - Bright FutureThe homespun warmth of Fool and No Machine are simple loves songs rattling around bare weatherboard houses, but Lenker’s sharp metaphors and turns of phrase turn them into something magical. So, too on Free Treasure – a story of freedom in the small things “Your cooking dinner at half-past-ten / I haven’t smelled food so good / Since I don’t know when”. Again, it’s these homely narratives that are instantly relatable, acting as a refuge. Meanwhile, with the campfire folk of Candleflame evokes similar imagery – those grainy snapshots of Midwest terrains and the uncomplicated worlds that Jane Smiley has spent a career trying to unpick (“When we’re together only one thing / Everything else stays the same”).
While these instances see Lenker’s songwriter turning back the clock, she’s not afraid to use modern composites to get her point across. The aptly titled Cellphone Says plays at a bridge between worlds both old and new. Either side of it, however, lies turmoil.
Firstly, with the bipolar folk of Vampire Empire, which is perhaps Bright Future’s darkness moment. Absorbed by bitterness and conflict (“Well, I walked into your dagger for the last time in a row / It’s like trying to start a fire with matches in the snow”), this is precious songwriting seeing life through the lens of someone beyond their years.
And the picture doesn’t become any rosier on Donut Seam. Alongside singer, Nick Hakim, the pair unveil a story of escapism where the vestiges of love are swallowed up by climate change (“My heart has holes in it / And there you were you exposing it / How I would lose my mind / To get lost only to find / This whole world is dying”).
Then there’s the bookend of heartache that is Ruined (“I wish I waved when I saw you / I just watching you passing by.”) While here Lenker is more inward in her thoughts than on Real House, it doesn’t make the song any less fraught with emotion.
And again, while Lenker’s contemporaries tap into similar well springs in a bid to find their inner core, I’m not sure any of them hold a profounder message. The images one sees through Lenker’s songs are as vivid and supremely street level as anything within the big indie broadchurch.
On Already Lost, Lenker sings, “Although love is riding blind, it can always read my mind”. It captures the grace and gravitas of Bright Future. Unbound, real and raw, Lenker has delivered many high-calibre moments in such a short space of time. However, on Bright Future, there’s an argument to suggest that this eclipses them all.
Bright Future is out now via 4AD. Purchase from Bandcamp.
