The last few weeks before summer are filled with excitement for freedom, but dread for finals. The life of high school students is dreading the tests, exams, and presentations that the next few weeks hold. So, subsequently, instead of celebrating these last few days of the school year, many are going through troubles.
Adrianne Lenker released her album “songs” on October 23, 2020, with certain songs going viral in recent years. All of the songs featured on the album were recorded in an isolated cabin in Massachusetts, and all of the songs are the raw recordings with no edits or added instrumentals. It was a product of quarantine after Lenker experienced a hurtful breakup, and it explores themes such as loss and solitude.
“Zombie girl”
“Sleep paralysis, I swear I could’ve felt you there
And I almost could’ve kissed your hair
But the emptiness withdrew me
From any kind of wishful prayer”
Like most of the songs on this album, Lenker accomplishes a comforting lullaby for Zombie Girl, imitating waking up early in the morning, but in this case to an empty bed. This song explores the loneliness that comes after the end of a relationship. In the aftermath, the song depicts trying to understand your previous partner and trying to cope with being alone.
“Anything”
“Wanna listen to the sound of you blinking
Wanna listen to your hands soothe
Listen to your heart beating
Listen to the way you move”
Anything is a tender-hearted yet soul crushing love song of devotion towards Lenker’s love. Through this song she describes how she craves true, pure love from the woman she loves, without the toxicity she is faced with in reality. The lyrics show a yearning for a domestic life that is so hard sought after but will never be achieved.
“Not a lot, just forever”
“She comes, I let her
And we share a paradise
And I roll theme one or twice
Can’t get much better”
In the song Lenker encapsulates how after a heartbreak there is a longing for love that feels everlasting. Through the song it speaks that finding someone who makes us feel safe and secure must believe that not a lot, just forever, could be enough. However other parts of the song also reflect the pain of being let down that may have been the one. It can make us put up walls and isolate us as a defense mechanism from happening once again.
“Ingydar”
“You are as from me as memory
With fixtures facture varyingly
The juice of dark cherries cover my skin
Six years in, no baby”
Through the song, it discusses how life is just being sucked into the mouth of time or that time is built on the experience in life. Every minor movement of time whether it be seconds, minutes, hours, and beyond everything is being born while other things are decaying. Throughout time we are constantly growing and decaying simultaneously. This duality of time and life is encapsulated in the song as time can only be visualised yet we should cherish our growth in life.
“songs” by Adrianne Lenker takes all listeners through a journey of love and loss of time. It signifies how difficult certain parts of life can be as we think about the closer we get to death every second. By showing these passionate emotions through her music it makes listeners understand that it will soon get better.
