Bright future

Adrian Lenker

Bright future

4 AD

March 22, 2024
Web Exclusive

By Mark Moody

Similar to Emily Sprague's self-titled album Florist a few years ago, Adrianne Lenker's approach to Bright future brings warm and wonderful results. Surrounded by friends Nick Hakim (piano), Josefin Runsteen (violin), Mat Davidson (guitar), as well as the atmospheric sounds of the studio itself, the album shines most consistently when all the talents of the musicians are highlighted. Lenker's sing-song beat makes things happen on the reflective opener, “Real House.” “Do you remember running?” Lenker asks before recounting childhood memories and finally juxtaposing the life-giving and life-giving properties of a hypodermic needle. A spare and serious start to be sure.

But Bright future it begins to blossom on the following 'Sadness as a Gift', where an undulating guitar strum meets a lovely violin run and Hakim's intermittent piano notes. Lenker has long proven her ability to lay down a simple couplet, and here she nails the song's heart with the devastating “Snow falling, I try to keep from call.” The album's liveliest song, the reworked Big Thief single “Vampire Empire,” has an energetic acoustic treatment not unlike Bob Dylan's early approach. While the later “Already Lost” benefits from producer Phillip Weinrobe's banjo accompaniment, which reflects the song's ancient Appalachian underpinnings.

The more spare settings here prove to be a more demanding lot. Appearing in the center of the album, “Evol”, with its reflection on a series of words spelled backwards, feels like the result of a compositional exercise gone too far. The massed vocals of “Donut Seam,” whose title is paired with the phrase “it doesn't seem,” make the most of its literary playfulness. And the final, phase-shifted echo of “Ruined” is the best of the unaccompanied tracks here.

Lenker has long established herself as one of the best and most prolific songwriters of our time. Her solo albums are easily on par with her body of work Grand Thief, while also providing an opportunity to explore darker themes that are more readily apparent to the listener. It's hard to rank this personal work alongside Lenker's other releases, but suffice it to say Bright future it fits comfortably with everything he's done to date and brings a greater sense of being of a moment in time. (www.adriannelenker.com)

Author Rating: 8/10