Songs and Instrumentals

Adrianne Lenker is the lead vocalist and guitarist of the American indie rock band Big Thief. In 2018, she released a solo album titled Abysskiss on Saddle Creek Records.[10] In 2019, Big Thief left Saddle Creek and signed to 4AD, releasing two studio albums: U.F.O.F. in May 2019 and Two Hands in October 2019.[11] The albums were the band's most successful and acclaimed to date: U.F.O.F. received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album[12] and both albums appeared on the Billboard 200 chart, with Two Hands peaking at 113.[13] Their song "Not" from Two Hands was named by many publications as one of the year's best songs.[14][15][16]

White pines in Massachusetts.

Big Thief toured in support of the albums until March 2020, when their European tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lenker flew back to New York and drove to Western Massachusetts to be with her sister Zoë, staying in a one-room cabin next door.[17][18] Lenker planned to take a break from the constant cycle of recording, touring, and promotion she had been in since 2014. She was also dealing with a recent relationship breakup and did not intend to make new music. However, she found herself writing new songs with her guitar while in solitude. She eventually invited audio engineer Phil Weinrobe to assist her in recording new material.[18] Recording took place from April 22 to May 23, 2020, in Westhampton, Massachusetts in the small one-room pine cabin in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains.[19] The albums were mixed at the end of May at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn, New York. The albums feature Lenker's vocals and her playing acoustic guitar, as well using a paint brush and the needles of a white pine tree as instruments. It also features recordings of the rain, the wind, the fire from a wood stove, the chimes on her front porch, the birds, and the insects of the forest.[19]

Lenker and Weinrobe spent three weeks trying to record and dealing with electricity and technical setbacks. They initially considered recording the albums on an old cassette tape. At the time, their only functioning tape recorder was Weinrobe's battery-powered Sony Walkman. Lenker eventually received an Otari eight-track recorder from a friend. The two albums were recorded on analog-analog-analog (AAA), free of all digital processes. Nine of the eleven tracks on Songs were written during the cabin sessions.[20][21] Lenker and Weinrobe began and ended each day by playing an improvised acoustic guitar piece. They later combined their favorite pieces from these sessions and incorporated them into "Music for Indigo" and "Mostly Chimes" on Instrumentals.[9][20]

Both albums present a lo-fi sound, consisting primarily of Lenker's vocals and acoustic guitar.[5]

Songs and Instrumentals were announced on September 2, 2020.[23] "Anything" was released as a single the same day.[7] "Dragon Eyes" was released as a single on October 1, 2020.[24] Songs and Instrumentals were released by 4AD on October 23, 2020.[8] A video of Lenker playing "Zombie Girl" in the cabin was released the same day.[25] The albums feature artwork of watercolor paintings by Lenker's grandmother, Diane Lee.[26]

Lenker performed five tracks from the album on NPR's "Tiny Desk (Home) Concert" series, released on November 18, 2020.[27] Lenker performed "Anything" on the January 26, 2021, episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[28] A video for "Forwards Beckon Rebound" was released on February 3, 2021, featuring Lenker dancing in the California desert at Wild Heart Ranch in Joshua Tree.[29]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10 (Songs)[30] 8.2/10 (Instrumentals)[31]
Metacritic	84/100[32]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[33]
DIY	[1]
Exclaim!	9/10 (Songs)[34] 8/10 (Instrumentals)[35]
The Independent	(Songs)[36]
Mojo	[37]
NME	[2]
Pitchfork	8.8/10[9]
The Times	[38]
Uncut	8/10[5]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Songs and Instrumentals received an average score of 84 based on 19 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[32]

Roisin O'Connor of The Independent gave Songs a perfect score, writing, "It's excruciating in its honesty – even for Lenker, who's hardly known for shying away from her feelings. Now she bares her pain with complete abandon. It's quite extraordinary."[36] Peter Watts of Uncut gave the album an 8 out of 10 rating, writing, "Most musicians would use these sounds to ground the music in a sense of naturalism, but with Lenker it enhances the mystery."[5]

In her three-star review for Mojo, Victoria Segal wrote that the albums "seem to have rolled away from the modern world entirely" and that Songs felt more focused with Lenker's "sweet, freshly cut" vocals.[37] The Uproxx editorial staff highlighted these two albums among the releases the week of October 25 for Indie Mixtape, calling them a "fitting pair of albums to soundtrack autumnal living".[39]

Notes

• All tracks are stylized in all lowercase.[20]

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes[19] and Bandcamp.[57]

• Adrianne Lenker – vocals, acoustic guitar, paintbrush, needles of a white pine tree, production
• Phil Weinrobe – recording, mixing, production
• Scott Hull – mastering
• Brendan Ford – lacquer cut
• Diane Lee – front and back cover paintings
• Sarah Schiesser – layout