Grade: B-
‘I feel within myself a constant dialogue between my masculinity, my femininity and the part of me that is neither of those things. I’m just trying to talk about it because I feel like I’m something that is very ambiguous,’ explains lead singer and songwriter Adrianne Lenker. This may explain why the first song on the new album from this New York indie-ish folk-rock band is called ‘Incomprehensible’, a title which could easily be appended to a good 60 per cent of the lyrics on an album which, given its heralding as the greatest folk album ever, is something of a let-down. It ain’t quite John Prine, let alone Woody Guthrie. Hell, it’s not even Conor Oberst.
The songs drift by with the usual complement of electronic atmospherics to disguise a lack of melodic wit in the songwriting. Only on the title track and the longish, almost dream pop, of ‘Grandmother’, does something as memorable as a tune grab hold. On ‘Happy With You’ Adrianne skirts lethally close to the kind of fey post-punk best typified by Altered Images all those years ago (imagine a more confused and pissed-off Clare Grogan), while ‘Los Angeles’, with its ghostly laughter, stretches out its two chords way too long. You have to be a very good songwriter to conjure something original and appealing out of two chords and Adrianne is really not that. She has a lovely, pliable voice, mind, and the songs chug by with a certain competence. But then, everybody is competent these days – and nobody very much more than that.
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