The Riff’s Album Club Discussion Recap

Here’s a detailed summary of our fun and lively discussion last weekend

Why Adrianne?

I first heard Adrianne Lenker's music back in 2019 when I first discovered Big Thief. They were riding a high from U.F.O.F., and Two Hands was on the way. I was mesmerized by their sophisticated neo-folk sound and thought-provoking lyricism. When I found out Lenker also made music on her own, I was hooked. For the next couple of years, I listened to a lot of Lenker’s personal work and fell in love with that music, which was almost equal to the Big Thief stuff.

Along this journey, I decided that “Gone” was my favorite Adrianne Lenker song. It’s a sweet acoustic record about emotional reconciliation after a breakup. Therefore, it goes without saying that I was more than excited when Songs dropped in 2020. I played it to death during the peak of the pandemic. It felt like another roommate during my grad school years in Texas and accompanied me well during those months of isolation. I was also going through a breakup myself, so this breakup album unpacked many of the same hang-ups I was clinging to.

Positivity Central

So how did the conversation go!? It was a pure delight to see everyone’s shining faces on that Zoom screen. I think the first thing that blew me away was the number of attendees. There were nearly 10 of us! I haven’t counted the number each month, but it feels like the record — or at least close.

Everyone shared their experiences listening to the album, their initial thoughts, some shortcomings they found in the project, and many other topics that rained down from different comments.

The Garden

Regarding location, cars and gardens seemed to be the most prominent answers. While Jessica Lee McMillan listened to the project on her way to work, Steve Goldberg and Nicole Brown found themselves tending to their gardens while listening to Songs. From their descriptions, it sounded like being that close to nature while listening to this intimate album made them appreciate their work more and helped them feel more present. Jessica’s commute also allowed her to hear the album nearly nine times. These repeated listens opened the door for her to the album's core.

Lenker’s Vocals

Lenker’s vocals were also a big topic of discussion. The question remained: How would you describe her singing style or the texture of her voice to someone who had never heard her before?

Anthony Overs said her voice sounded “frail,” much frailer even than in her voice in Big Thief songs. At the same time, Steve said that there’s a “confidence” in her voice too. I also added that, when reading reviews of her work, a word that kept popping up was “brittle.”

In the end, the general consensus was that she has strong vocal moments and can push them when needed. More importantly, she seems to save the harsher-sounding material for the Big Thief stuff and her softer work for the solo projects.

Terry Taking Us To Class

In glorious Terry Barr, he took us to class. The story began with one of his students. For class, said student wrote about the difficulty communicating certain political issues with their parents. He connected this to our discussion by exclaiming how there are lots of sides to life that we have a difficult time reconciling.

In Lenker’s work, especially on Songs, she uses her music to shed light on both sides of life. Both the light and the dark, the good and the bad, and the sweet mixed with the terrible.

How Do You Pronounce Pecan?

It’s not an album discussion if we don’t go off track every now and again. The correct pronunciation of pecan took us on a good five-minute conversation. It took time to really unpack its origins. It sounded like the pronunciation was heavily influenced by both how you grew up and where you grew up. While this fun off-topic tirade was full of laughs and jokes, another meeting sideline conversation was less friendly.

Jeffrey vs. Nicole

Here lies the beginning of the Jeffrey Harvey and Nicole saga. Who knows how many rounds this will go? All bets are on. During the Riff meeting, it was clear neither side wanted to back down on topics that ranged from Gen Z’s music taste and the irresistibility of popular music.

While Nicole may have won the first round with the knockout punch “I’m raising Gen Z’ers!” the look in Jeffrey’s eyes showed that there’s most likely going to be a round two. To Be Continued.

The Album discussion also took place on the eve of my birthday. The immense number of “Happy Birthdays” brought a good amount of butterflies to my stomach. I felt very grateful to be surrounded by people who loved music as much as I do. Several of these people I’ve also known for years now, and it warms me to know their passion for the art has never wavered.

Some of the other stars of the meeting who came through were Charlie Cole and Christine Carmichael. I was so glad to see you both! Thank you for all your comments and input as well!

To end this piece, I’ll share two more things:

First, you can find my speaking notes from the meeting below. In it, I tried to bring everyone up to speed on Lenker’s story. I found it really helpful for the rest of the conversation as people referenced her childhood and Big Thief’s stuff. There was, of course, a PowerPoint involved which I know you’re wondering about ;).

I also loved the conversation so much that I went to Big Thief’s merch store and ordered a shirt(!) You can check out a picture of myself sporting a “Not A Lot, Just Forever” at the bottom of this article. Cheers, and here’s to many more album discussions with The Riff. See you all in November :D

Speaking Notes From the Meeting

Origin

To understand Adrianne Lenker, you must understand her relationship with her father. It’s important to frame her story through their connection and what he taught her growing up. Lenker’s dad instilled in her this deep-rooted curiosity in finding one’s purpose, discovering life’s purpose, the presence of God, and people’s behaviors.

Her dad also had a love for music and was a musician himself. Nevertheless, these important lessons were woven into her incredibly disruptive and upsetting upbringing.

Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian cult community. In the beginning, this group provided her family with community and warmth. However, over time her parents began to question the group and eventually left the cult when Lenker was 6. Since then, the family of 5 (Lenker has two younger siblings) moved around a lot, sometimes in with other families and in vans until they bought a place in Minneapolis. Lenker’s said in past interviews that she “lived in 14 different houses until I was 8, renting here and there”.

This unstable lifestyle was compounded by the parent’s abandonment of Christianity itself around this time, or as Lenker has said, “we went from not celebrating any holidays to having our first Christmas and Halloween when I was 8 or 9”.

Of course, this was short-lived, and the father became religious again when the family moved to Minneapolis. During her adolescent and teenage years in Minnesota, Lenker’s dad would teach her chords and melodies.

They also would have philosophical, religious, and enlightening discussions. When Lenker was 12, her parents divorced, and while her younger siblings stayed with their mom, Lenker decided to live with her father.

Lenker’s dad set her up with music lessons with artists in St. Paul and took her to bars and open mics to perform starting at 12. By the time she was 13, she had released her first album, Stages Of The Sun. Due to her music schedule and difficulty socializing in school, Lenker was homeschooled in high school and received her GED at 16. Soon after, she went to the Berklee College Of Music on a full scholarship. There, she played in bands, honed her guitar skills, and found her musical voice.

After college, she moved to New York and soon ran into someone who would be one of her teammates on Big Thief, Buck Meek. Meek not only helped her adapt to the scene in New York, but they formed a duo and went on tour together for years.

Lenker would go on to unpack the instability of her childhood through her music and highlight those experiences in her stark and deeply personal songwriting.

2014–2016

2014 was an exceptionally busy and productive time for Lenker. In January of that year, she released her adult debut album, Hours Were the Birds. This project was celebrated for her mature and remote lovesick ballads. Her weary-sounding vocals also added a unique and profound layer to her music.

Reviewers around this time could already sense that she would be a special voice in the singer-songwriter's space. Little did they know she would hit them with a collaborative project in the summer with Buck Meek.

In a lot of ways, A- sides and B-sides is seen as the precursor to Big Thief. Before they found the other two members of the band, Lenker and Meek toured as Meek and Anne around the country, pushing out indie rock/singer-songwriter songs with brittle soul and welcoming instrumentation.

The double album demonstrated the two's musical synergy and showcased both of their strong songwriting abilities over these simplistic yet dynamic folk-styled productions.

Lenker and Meek toured together for two years and built a loyal following in their wake. To upgrade, they decided to create a larger band and recruited Max Oleartchik on bass and James Krivchenia on drums to form Big Thief. Big Thief dropped their bravely titled debut album Masterpiece to critical acclaim and favorable reviews. It was applauded for its bareboned yet compelling instrumentation and Lenker’s songwriting.

2016–2018

The band didn’t let up and, in 2017, released the follow-up to Masterpiece, Capacity. Where Masterpiece was about others’ stories, Capacity was about Lenker herself, showcasing a picture of her uncle carrying her as a baby on the cover.

Musically, the album was categorized in the lane of Joni Mitchell and Joanna Newsom, benefitting from dreary vocals and heartfelt lyrics. The following year Lenker returned with her own project called Abysskiss, her sophomore solo album. In her late twenties at this time, Lenker spent this album reflecting on her life up to that point.

In typical Lenker fashion, she sings about the duality of life and death and their seeming contradictions that actually act as complements in our abyss-like lives. This darkened worldview sounds uplifting and drawing when Lenker croons about it since it’s her narrative milieu and she’s seemingly made peace with it over the years.

2018–2020

2019 was a massive year for the band, showcasing Big Thief at their most aligned and comfortable position. The sister albums U.F.O.F. and Two Hands also dove deeper into those existential questions that characterized Lenker’s childhood.

While UFOF was the celestial twin, sounding more pristine and lush than ever before, Two Hands was the earthy twin. The rustic production and forestry aura of the songs made it as a wonderful complement to U.F.O.F. as they closed out the busy year on top and filled with Grammy nominations.

When the world decided to close down next due to the COVID virus in early 2020, Lenker retreated to a western Massachusetts cabin to make an album. This album was Songs.

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