Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) -- abysskiss

This is quite lovely so far. Some of these recordings I think I might prefer the live versions I've hears but the songs themselves are great.

I think this is the standout for me so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjB3Qwjcimw

^^ totally agreed

her guitar playing is gorgeous throughout, but the way it meshes with the cooed chorus in "from" is the album's best moment.

totally

in total I kind of wish some of the album was less "cooed" but it works v well on that one

And I mean, any criticism I have of this record at all is only in comparison to the ridiculously high expectations I had from seeing the material live, because it's a great record

There's a couple of tracks on this where I feel like they went in too hard on the lo-fi indie schtick, and I just feel like she's so much better than that.

lol at 1:45 in "from," you can clearly hear what sounds like somebody loudly putting dishes in the studio sink

I think I like this "From" (pre-album live show) better than the record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QckxTQQ9XBo

I’ve been listening a lot to Adrianne’s solo albums, plus her duo releases w/Buck Meek, as a “palate cleanser” from Big Thief.

Hours Were the Birds is particularly wonderful; it’s such a pleasure to listen to. AL is an exceptional songwriter, and she’s clearly deeply rooted in folk/trad idioms... she probably could have had a thriving career as an acoustic solo artist, had she chosen not to form a world-class band.

I feel like whatever’s in those Minnesota waters that flows thru Hibbing and “Lake Minnetonka” has touched her as well, lol...

I know nothing about this guy, but this is such an amazing cover

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtaT9jepnpU/?igshid=MmJiY2I4NDBkZg==

Gorgeous. Thanks.

^^

Yeah, really nice. That's probably my favorite of her solo songs, great version of it.

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/bright-future/1721534468

album bright future out 22 march

tracklist:

real house
sadness as a gift
fool
no machine
free treasure
vampire empire
evol
candleflame
already lost
cell phone says
donut seam
ruined

"sadness is a gift" is out soon. pretty much all these songs have been played live by big thief over the last two years, the only titles i don't recognise are "fool", "evol" and "candleflame". we're getting another version of "vampire empire" too

Excited for this

really looking forward to "real house", that was one of the best of the new songs

i wonder if "bright future" has been renamed given that it isn't actually on the tracklist

So we do have one song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJmIL83vas

New song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmycsQ30obg

gorgeous!

Really love both new songs, can't wait for the full album (released on the same day as Julia Holter / Waxahatchee / Kim Gordon lol, talk about a stacked date)

i like this version a lot more than the live versions with big thief

so this was recorded in autumn 2022, before they started playing most of these songs live as band, and so this version of "vampire empire" was recorded before the band version recorded last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeXOJxD_Hg

good stuff, if not a grand statement

https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/album/i-won-t-let-go-of-your-hand

surprise new EP to benefit the palestine children's relief fund!

bandcamp seems to have some sort of issue with its payment system though and won't accept my card. i have never encountered this before

ok "someone to" especially is rather lovely

I'm sure she's doing it out of good intent and I applaud her for this gesture and etc but I can't help but think about how her and Big Thief were defending playing in Tel Aviv just like two years ago lol sorry

Which they ultimately didn't do, tho. (Bet they're glad now.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/arts/music/adrianne-lenker-bright-future.html

she brought that up in this interview, apparently unprompted, and admitted it was "naive and not thought out"

The fiddle on "Sadness as a Gift" is so beautifully played and recorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIU5YMp-l2A

very wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqZB9F2X5A

wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-XInYFDdwk

this is a previously unheard one from the new album

"once a bunch" is apparently the japanese bonus track too

i love the solo "vampire empire" arrangement so much more than any of the big thief arrangements (some of which were pretty good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdC9jXasyTM

i really like this "anything" with the piano & violin

looks like a wonderful night

anything is too good

surely the steve fisher version is posted somewhere upthread, it's perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6YRAUKczyw

"Free Treasure" sounds like "The Swimming Song" by Loudon Wainwright III. Still gorgeous though.

the studio version of "real house" is really underwhelming unfortunately, it's just sparse piano chords and doesn't have the gorgeous guitar figure in the version she was playing live. i hope we get a big thief version of it some day

lol the "vampire empire" on the album is yet another arrangement, different to the finger-picked arrangement in the live video i linked yesterday. it's really really good though

she/big thief could just put out a whole album of "vampire empire" arrangements at this point and it'd rule

overall a really good album, though not quite as magical as songs

Saw her tonight, she was pretty captivating. Even the lesser songs work when she's sitting right in front of you, she's such a great guitarist and singer. Just a pleasure to see and hear. Had a whole big auditorium holding its breath while she retuned between every single song lol.

But I was sad she didn't do "Ruined"! That's my favorite of the songs I know from the new album.

To listen to her transform into an ace melodist amazes me when I consider what rough going the first Big Thief albums were to me. Maybe it's me who's opened up. I like this solo album a lot.

it's only the first big thief album that's rough, everything since then has been melodic gold

Well the first one is patchy for sure, but hard to say an album that has songs like the title track, "Real Love" and "Paul" is "rough".

I don't feel that way anymore, but I'll claim they improved with each subsequent album.

masterpiece still has its moments but capacity was a huge jump

It's actually hard for me to separate Masterpiece and Capacity. I didn't check these guys out at all until U.F.O.F. and then really got into them with Two Hands, so I went back and bought the first two at the same time, which is when I started kicking myself for having been ignoring them.

same here

i didn't get into capacity at the time but i've grown to love it as much as the rest

I listened to Masterpiece just because of the ilm thread on it. I thought it was ok but didn’t really grab me. I circled back with UFOF and I’m with Alfred on liking each one (and each one more) from there.

I love Masterpiece!

Capacity is the one I’ve always had the hardest time connecting with (despite ILX consensus)

I was really into Masterpiece but haven't gotten too invested in anything since then, hoping to fix that someday

New album is stunning! Been playing it all day.

donut seam all day
feels like american pie though

I had the same thought re American Pie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDwEWV2X8MA

i wish this is what the studio "real house" sounded like

it's one of her very best songs but it's just not the same without the guitar part

I love this.

The writing sometimes verges on bathos and then she always gets in the gut punch, like she presents as Vonnegut and then goes Carver on you. That song (IDK the titles yet) where she suggests swimming because there won’t be any water in the future because climate change, I was ready to consign to the Dud pile, and then I burst into tears at the last line.

Sonically very cool — it’s got a ramshackle home-recorded vibe, but is also obviously very carefully put together, with almost incongruous studio elements that leash the most frayed bits & tighten everything up. Damn.

Literally burst into tears. I was on a plane. In the middle seat. It was embarrassing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCbQxOu2_6Q

this version of "ruined" with her playing a solo is really good too

Loving this album. She is writing and making music at a remarkable clip -- in the last ~four/five years she's released three Big Thief albums (one of them a double) and three solo albums -- and it's all quality. Her ability to flip between complex and utterly simple song structures reminds me of Dylan.

I don't love the album but it has a few tracks I like. Free Treasure is great.

She's a major talent. She could stop writing tomorrow and she'd have a catalog people would still be coming back to in 20 years.

Yeah for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YeNxFw6mTk

new song!

https://www.tiktok.com/@kizzwizzfizz/video/7362895841180372256

another new song "baby honey sweetheart darling"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1luOFTqGcA

this is such a good version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbjL2tk7dI8

and here's "once a bunch" from the japanese edition of bright future at long last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FQj_JLQf0

and another new one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiuRpq8WQM

that's a beauty

she's good at being philosophical abt love

"Can't get enough of you, you come around I'm ruined" by the beauty of this chorus once again. What a rainy day first encounter w pretty much whole album.

otm

Sonically very cool — it’s got a ramshackle home-recorded vibe, but is also obviously very carefully put together, with almost incongruous studio elements that leash the most frayed bits & tighten everything up. Damn.

― It was on a accident (hardcore dilettante)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dlaCqgOlX8

another new one! at this rate i'm expecting big thief to release at least two albums' worth of material again late next year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoPGm0QL4Ds

and another new song for a compilation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yndJfiWv0z8

https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-revolution-hall 2 hour live album out next week!

tracklist:
1. hello, i love you & blue lightning 2:12
2. - door & how are you? - 1:34
3. little things (live) 4:28
4. happiness (live) 3:28
5. cut my hair (live) 4:02
6. time escaping & wild whistling (live) 4:33
7. cattails & soundcheck 3:16
8. ruined (check) 3:06
9. - nick & josefin - 1:29
10. symbol (live) 3:48
11. real house (live) 6:53
12. indiana & sneezing (live) 1:33
13. - now westlin winds - 1:53
14. i do love you (live) 5:08
15. - brief message for adrianne - 0:41
16. heavy focus (live) 2:18
17. vampire empire (live) 4:42
18. - lady midnight, I'll tape you back together - (live) 1:15
19. born for loving you (live) 4:10
20. I will always love you (live) 0:50
21. - noah - 0:18
22. spud infinity (live) 4:20
23. - oso - 0:20
24. promise is a pendulum (live) 4:58
25. - backwards intermission - 0:50
26. evol (kcehc) 4:23
27. fangs 2:52
28. oldest (live) 3:32
29. sadness as a gift (live) 3:44
30. - drawing a star - 0:43
31. orange (live) 1:58
32. two reverse (live) 3:25
33. free treasure & fire trucks 1:30
34. ripples & happy birthday alice 1:51
35. fool (live) 3:43
36. not a lot, just forever (live) 5:37
37. - naljf & crowd- 0:55
38. no limit (live) 3:59
39. donut seam (live) 2:35
40. zombie girl (live) 2:55
41. - happy birthday everyone - 2:29
42. anything (live) 4:30
43. wake me up to drive (outside) (live) 3:39

"happiness", "i do love you", "oldest", "no limit" and "ripples" are apparently all unreleased songs, though i'm not sure which one "ripples" is. the tracklist is clearly going for something other than just documenting a live show so i'm really interested to hear what she's done here. i'm really looking forward to having a live version of "real house" on record too

this is really really wonderful

double cassette is $39.08 on Bandcamp :(

a small price to pay to support such a prolific and world-class songwriter, i guess, but still ... i don't think i can pull the trigger.

this is an all-time great live album

a lot of these tracks are better than the studio versions, there's a surprising amount of clever production tricks, and every recording has such a wonderful atmosphere

curious to check this out, I saw her back in November and it was honestly a pretty meh show. my wife couldn't make it so I took my dad, who didn't know a note of her music, and he was enthralled, so go figure.

I mean, looks like the cassette is sold out anyway, both on Bandcamp and the official Big Thief page... so that makes it easier I guess. Would absolutely plunk down for a CD version in a heartbeat though.

there were 6 cassettes left on Bandcamp last night when i was whining about the price above.

you are right, tho, jon, this would be a CD purchase for me.

even the digital version is real expensive but it is 2 hours and incredible, at least

it's hard to see how this isn't the best album released this year