Adrianne Lenker Sings of Warm Summer Nights on ‘Dragon Eyes’

Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker has shared “Dragon Eyes,” the latest offering from her upcoming double solo LP, Songs and Instrumentals. 

Accompanied by a visual of trees at dusk, the track features Lenker’s vocals over sparse acoustic guitar. “Freezing at the edge of the bed/Chewing a cigarette and repeating shadows of words I said,” she sings. Later, she reflects on a season that’s come to a close: “Stars bloom on a warm summer night.”

“Dragon Eyes” follows the lead single “Anything.” Songs and Instrumentals mark Lenker’s third and fourth solo albums, following 2018’s Abysskiss. Both were made in quarantine, inside a cabin in the mountains of western Massachusetts with engineer Philip Weinrobe.

The double LP arrives on October 23rd via 4AD with a digital free-vinyl recording, a.k.a. analog-analog-analog (AAA). “Not only does this process allow for a very specific type of sonic experience to come alive, but the process also dictates how we work,” Weinrobe said in a statement. “The fine-toothed editing and micro-adjustments that every modern record relies on are not available. The computer screen is not glowing while the music is being recorded.”

“The entire workflow becomes a part of the music in a way that is simply not possible when working in digital audio,” he added. “AAA is a very labor and resource-intensive process and it has a wide array of limitations compared to digital record-making, but there is no other way we could have achieved both the capture and delivery of this music without it.”

Songs and Instrumentals is available for preorder here.