Hi, everyone. Tom Thetra Tano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Adrian Lenker record, Bright Future. This is a brand new LP from one of the most respected singers and songwriters on the indie circuit currently, Adrian Lenker, who is currently seeing the spoils of the good and consistent work she's been putting in over the years, fronting the indie outfit Big Thief, who have numerous modern classics under their belts at this point. But let's not also forget, Adrien has been steadily releasing solo material over the years, too. Ours Were the Birds, Abyss Kiss, as well as songs and instrumentals that she dropped over the pandemic. Since taking off, Adrienne has really yet to release a subpar album, and seemingly, she is only getting better at what she does best, penning these weary, rusty folksy tunes that sometimes have a country twist, that sometimes feature enchanting instrumental layers, that sometimes deliver profound observations on life itself, or sometimes feature devastatingly sad lyrics that feel like an atomic bomb going off in your heart. Her work is really proof that being a great singer-songwriter comes down to a lot more than just musicianship, as through her art, Adrienne is also a commentator and philosopher of sorts who is able to effectively communicate and convey certain emotional ideas and feelings and make the music she writes serve them.

Case in point, the opening track to this record, Real House, which isn't so much a formal song as it is a piano meditation, soundtracking a personal story, a slice of life. The writing is diaristic in a way that reminds me of similarly stripped back indie ballad records such as Mount Eres Dawn or A Crow Looked at Me. The piano performance and recording on this thing is very raw. It's very blemished. It's very intimate, very much a one take type experience. It's rare that you get something that is just so quiet and meandering and intensely close right off the bat on a record, especially given how long the song here is. It does work in part because the cord progression is great. But also, Adrienne has an emotional conviction about her that keeps me hanging on every word with this track as she reminisces about childhood memories this hospital scares, and having to put down the family dog, illustrating moments of growth, revelations, and parallels along the way. There's an intense stillness to the writing and the performance on this track, too, to the point where the silence at the very end of it is deafening.

But yeah, overall, an incredible start to this album, and a really strong shift to go from here to Sadness is a Gift, whose guitar layers and tasteful fiddle bits feel like a warm sunrise. Meanwhile, the bitter sweet lyrics on the song are all about trying to find the silver lining in what seems like the end of a relationship with Adrienne saying, There is nothing more to say. Chances shut her shining eyes and turned her face away, and also saying, Leaning on the windowsill, you could write me someday, and I think you will. Balancing feeling sad but hopeful at the same time, which is only enhanced by the entrancing sway that is brought by the guitar strumming pattern on the track. And speaking of entrancing, I love all the plucky layers of guitar bouncing off of each other on the song fool, which hits an insane groove. And for whatever reason, I don't know if it's the way everything's arranged or the tones of the respective guitar layers on the track, but it just sounds otherworldly, almost mechanical in a way, but still manages to come across as very organic and very firmly, esthetically speaking, in that indie folk lane, especially with Adrienne really embracing that twang and her vocal leads these days.

The lyrics on this track, too, are just bursting with love and hopes and aspirations for herself and her loved ones. The song No Machine very similarly celebrates connections with others, too, with lyrics like, Let no machine, eat away our dream, baby, take my hand, let's go together. Hell, yeah. Add to that the refrain of, Don't know where I'd go without you. The chord changes on this track to undergo this contrast between sweetness and sadness that very much fits the song's narrative. That's not only embracing things like companionship, but simultaneously a fear of loneliness or that companionship ending. There are more highlights to come around the midpoint of the record, like a new version of Vampire Empire, a recent Big Thief single that many fans have loved, but also fought over, too, as we've been exposed live and demo vibe-wise to different iterations of the track. I happen to love the final studio single version of the song, but maybe this newer, more raw presentation of the track will satisfy fans who were unhappy with what Big Thief did with it. It certainly is more low a lot more acoustics at play. There's a speediness to the strumming patterns on the track.

Overall, vibe-wise, it almost reminds me of a Mountain Goat song from the lofi era, and I mean that comparison in the best way possible. But yeah, still a great song, I love this version, Love the Way, calls back to some of the old-world indie folk artists. I think Adrienne also embodies some of her influences effectively on the song Evil, too. A track that lyrically explores the potentially toxic dynamics that could come out of a romantic relationship. The eerie vocal melody is combined with the very patient piano arpeggios. Read some of the balladry that Tom York put into the recently released A Moon Shaped Pool album, which makes sense because this would not be the first time that anything big thief related would have a radio head nod in it. From here, we move on to a pretty strong second half on the record. I would say Candle flame is one of a few tracks on the album that has its sights set high in terms of the very deep emotions that are being depicted here. But the brevity of this song, combined with the lyrics being as vague as they are, it's difficult to see this one hitting all that hard emotionally.

And with moments like, I love you, I can't explain, maybe the issue is really self-prescribed. Conversely, the song already lost seems to find power in simplicity, mainly by virtue of it sounding like a quaint campfire singalong with lyrics about finding big things and vastness in relatively small moments and routine changes. Changing leaves, seeing into another person's eyes, connection. Something feels very old-world folk about the track, Celphone Says, too. The irony in which is that the writing on this song starts off with describing someone's name popping up on a cell phone as it's ringing. Then the story from there basically goes on to describe this very personal and necessary emotional connection going on through just the distance of a phone call. The fact that something so personal and human and intimate and old is being enhanced and created by this advanced technological satellite system. The final moments of the record are pretty great. We have Donut Seam, which is all about finding happiness during an existential moment where Adrian is reflecting on the impending death of the world, saying, Don't it seem like a good time for swimming before all the water disappears? To which I can only say, oof.

There are mentions of acid rain as well as dying love on the track, too, which only brings it in line with a lot of the other break up themes throughout the record as well. That final line on this track, too, One more kiss to last the years and the abrupt ending to follow from there. That actually works in this context because it really displays the lack of control we can have in certain scenarios when things start or when things finish. Then this record very much ends in the same way that it started with a tearjerker piano track, with this one being a lot more tuneful and ballad-like. There's an eerie similarity to a very melodrama ballad that I just have stuck in my head as I'm listening to this one. I can't quite place my finger on it. The track is a little deja vu, to say the least, but like the opener, the stillness and the emotional intensity and the simplicity of the performance on this track, combined with just Adrian's killer vocals, make it just a powerful, powerful moment to end things off on, especially given the emotional devastation that the lyrics are directly referencing on this track.

And with Adrienne showcasing on this record, not just how great of a songwriter she has become on this record, but a performer as well. Because few songwriters on the indie scene today are delivering vocal performances and lyrics that cut quite as deep as what Adrian is giving us on this album, which is why I'm feeling a strong eight on this one. Transition. Have you given this album a listen? Did you love it? Did you hate it? What would you rate it? You're the best, you're the best. What should I review next? Hit the like if you like. Please subscribe and please don't cry. Hit the bell as well. Over here next to my head is another video you can check out. Hit that up or a link to subscribe to the channel. Anthony Fantano, Adrian Linker. Forever.