BRIGHT FUTURE
by Adrianne Lenker
This unusual, engrossing album was recorded in a backwoods studio, and that ambience complements these stark songs. On the opener, Real House, Lenker of New York's experimental alt-folk outfit Big Thief - weaves a six-minute reminiscence over rickety piano, sometimes going off-mike.
Its unvarnished quality suggests she's creating it in real time and we're eavesdropping on a conversation: "Do you remember/Coming to the hospital when I was 14? My friends all left me there spinning/Dad was angry and you saw everything..."
That her recollection reaches no convenient closure only adds to the mystique, and Bright Future captures that kind of crafted spontaneity.
Sadness as a Gift opens with a count-in and has the quality of a gorgeous early Dylan ballad, as rendered during his upstate retreat: "Leaning on the windowsill/You could write me someday and I bet you will".
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