“TBright Future: Desire and Dystopia in Adrianne Lenker’s Folk Masterpiece

his whole world is dying / Don’t it seem like a good time for swimming / Before all the water disappears?” Even as I type those lyrics out, I feel chills. In this chorus of “Donut Seam,” Adrianne Lenker might have perfectly described what it’s like to live (and love) in the midst of climate change and with the threat of an uncertain future.

Bright Future, released on March 22nd, is Lenker’s sixth studio album as a solo artist. She has seen the most recognition as the frontwoman of Big Thief, a beloved indie folk band known to dip into rock and country. In comparison to Big Thief’s eclectic sound, Lenker’s solo work is stark and intimate (this latest album was recorded directly to an 8-track tape) and is an outlet for more free-flowing and honest songwriting. Adrianne Lenker’s Bright Future is a beautiful and frighteningly relatable album from one of the brightest modern-age folk songwriters.

Lenker invites us into the world of Bright Future with “Real House,” one of the most minimal songs on the record but one that expertly sets up its themes. The six-minute piano ballad is a survey of childhood memories, from playtime fantasies (“I wanted so much for magic to be real”) to the death of her dog (“And the whole family came back together”). She dedicates one verse to the 1998 disaster film Deep Impact: “I saw the first film that made me scared / And I thought of this whole world ending / I thought of dying unprepared.” Expertly, Lenker makes her fear about the world deeply personal. This opener is a meditation on the passage of time, and that thread carries into “Sadness As a Gift”—the album’s second track— which sees the singer relate the processing of heartbreak to the changing of the seasons (“Snow fallin’ / I try to keep from callin’). Mesmerizingly composed, this song introduces us more holistically to the collaborative team of Bright Future: Lenker’s wavering voice is underlined by that of neosoul singer Nick Hakim, who also plays piano on the album. Frequent Big Thief collaborator Mat Davidson contributes swaths of electric guitar, while violin from Swedish composer Josefin Runsteen gives the mix a wistful perfection. Adrianne Lenker identifies as queer, and her lyrics often deal with questions of masculinity and femininity. On the plucky, guitar-driven “Fool” she sings “We could be friends / You could love me through and through / If I were him / Would you be my family too?” On “Vampire Empire,” perhaps the album’s most insistent track lyrically, Lenker exclaims “I wanted to be your woman and I wanted to be your man!” This song is a cover of a Big Thief fan-favorite, and Lenker and her team add a country twang to its desperate lyrics. Despite the tension of some tracks, Lenker certainly takes time on Bright Future to write poignant and hopeful love songs. There’s the stunning “No Machine,” lyrically reminiscent of the Matrix films, where Lenker urges her lover to “let no machine eat away our dream” and strives to escape soul-sucking artificiality. She writes on “Free Treasure” about the beauty of nature and how real love is free and patient (“Rocks to climb between / Water like a washing machine”). Both of these songs feature sparkling acoustic guitar and some of the most soothing vocals on the record. Lenker’s meditations on sexuality and heartbreak ultimately offer love as the answer, and a lyrical juxtaposition with nature and machinery emphasizes the importance of striving for it in complicated times.

On Bright Future, depending on the song, Adrianne Lenker’s writing switches between the veiled and the direct. “Candleflame,” “Already Lost,” and “Cell Phone Says” are deep cuts on the album that are densely, even frustratingly, poetic (“The center is a hole in the sphere”?). They obviously mean something to Lenker, though, and a listener can easily feel something from the soothing country-folk arrangements. Meanwhile, some songs are so easy to understand that they might be just as offputting: On “Evol” Lenker dives into the world of palindromes, singing lyrics like “Love spells evil,” “Part, trap” and “Kiss, sick.” Perhaps the track sounds silly, but it can be seen as another comment on life’s volatility, in relationships and in the threat of change. “Donut Seam” is— as mentioned at the beginning of this review—the album’s thematic centerpiece and finest moment, with Lenker describing a budding relationship in a dying world. Despite the fear of extinction, the singer clarifies “I loved you, and I don’t regret / The way we’d pass the time.” Finally, closing track “Ruined” is a slow piano ballad brimming with devastating emotion (“Can’t get enough of you / You come around, I’m ruined.”) that rounds out the tracklist with a sort of simple dichotomy.

Adrianne Lenker desires to be human in an increasingly harsh world. Bright Future is instrumentally beautiful yet so often lyrically bleak, and it is hard to say whether the album’s title is ironic or hopeful. Can it be both?

Sam Seliger, former Program Director and Librarian & Archivist: Beach House (Baltimore, MD).

It's like Mazzy Star never left.

Lily Gasterland-Gustaffson: The Replacements (Minnesota, MN).

David Gonzalez, host of Urbano Latinx: Aventura (The Bronx, NY).

They were able to blend the music of their parents (Bachata) with the influence of other genres they heard growing up in the Bronx (funk, hip hop, jazz, etc.) and spoke about their experiences as second gen immigrants growing up in the Bronx to revitalize the genre and make music for an entire generation of new second-gen immigrants, myself included.

McKenna Roberts, American Head, OnAir Managing Editor: The Microphones/Mount Eerie (WA).

I’m very emotionally attached to Phil Elverum and his music from both projects. There’s a lot of depth and heart and creativity in his work, and I think he really captures that Pacific Northwest-specific melancholy in a lot of his music. Last summer I was in Anacortes (there’s an actual Mt. Erie!) to catch a ferry and was strictly listening to The Glow, Pt. 2.

Casey Lamb, Business Manager, host of Wednesday Cereal Music: LCD Soundsystem/ Television (NY).

As a New Yorker spoiled for choice, I'd have to say one of these two.

Ella Presiado, co-host of Offbeat: No Doubt (Orange County, CA).

Don’t get me started about ska/music heavily influenced by ska...

Georgia Dillane, Program Director: Yo La Tengo (Hoboken, NJ).

Because they still make music in and about Hoboken. So many Hoboken-born, and NJ-born, artists move to New York and then call themselves an NYC based band, but YLT stays true to Hoboken even as the city has changed so much since they started in the 90s at Maxwell’s.

Melisa Nehrozoglu, programmer: Funkadelic/ Lauryn Hill (NJ).

I feel like the state is truly underestimated at times for the talent and versatility of the artists that grew up/lived there. Both artists represent exactly the genres and styles I gravitate towards, which always involves rock/funk/soul.

Stella Fusaro, programmer: Alicia Keys (New York, NY).