Have you ever listened to an album, and suddenly felt like you have been transported to a forest — with birds chirping and creek water streaming? Adrianne Lenker’s indie-folk album “songs” encapsulates that feeling.
Lenker, a singer-songwriter who grew up in Minnesota, released two albums, “songs” and “instrumentals” on Oct. 23, 2020. Lenker wrote the records in a one-room cabin in a New England forest while in the midst of a heartbreak and the COVID-19 lockdown. Therefore, the woodsy tone of “songs” makes sense.
“Songs” begins with “two reverse,” which Lenker described to Apple Music as a foreshadowing of the entire album — “It’s also about finding a path to home and whatever that means, and also feeling trapped in the jail of the body or of the mind.”
“Ingydar” is about the cycle of life and how time eventually takes everything away — “Everything eats and is eaten/Time is fed.”
“Anything” is a sweet, tender folk song about Lenker only wanting to focus on her lover. She uses heartbreaking lyricism to describe what she is feeling — “Wanna listen to the sound of you blinking/Wanna listen to the sound of you soothe/Listen to your heart beating/Listen to the way you move.”
“Heavy focus” is another love song about Lenker wanting to center on her lover — “Set the camera to the flash/For a portrait of thе spirit/Only way it’s gonna last/To be near it.” Lenker uses a camera focus as a metaphor for her desire to focus on her significant other.
“Zombie girl” is a song in which Lenker describes an episode of sleep paralysis she had and the “zombie girl” who was in it — “Oh, emptiness/Tell me about your nature/Maybe I’ve been getting you wrong.”
Lenker described that feeling of emptiness in an interview with The New Yorker, asking the questions — “What is this feeling of emptiness? Is it me? Am I just hollow and empty? Or is emptiness actually something beautiful?”
“Dragon eyes” and “Not a lot, just forever” are two more songs in which Lenker expresses her love for a certain person. “Dragon eyes” is about Lenker wanting to feel a sense of belonging and a place with them.
“Not a lot, just forever” talks about the concept of “something happening infinitely, but in a small quantity” — to be changed by someone little by little, but also endlessly.
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