Post by Bink on Feb 7, 2024 13:52:29 GMT
Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker (9 July 1991)
Associated Acts: Big Thief, Pencil, Christmas In July
Vocal Range: B♭2 - C♯6
{Vocal Summary}
So I have been contemplating writing this one for a while because it's a little bit hard to describe how Adrianne Lenker and her music works for me. How I ramble forever about how this works for me. But it's not really something I can describe. While she is possibly my favourite singer ever (barring like, Marvin Gaye, Jeff and Tim Buckley maybe) I have ever heard I could not for life of me tell you why this is the case. Unlike the other three I could tell you exactly why I love their voices and music. While I can describe why I love Adrianne's music, and trust me I will in a moment, her voice is a little bit of anomaly for me, she is not overtly flashy or anything, it just works so fucking well that I cannot pull it beyond that.
Alright but before I get to talking about her voice, this is a vocal summary after all yaknow, but I have to talk about her music. Forgive the stream of conciousness writing for all of this. If you've read other vocal summaries of mine you would know this is nothing new.
Alright. Music. Adrianne has two distinct projects tied to her name, yes you can look at the "Associated Acts" category and see two others but no one knows those outside of a few people so they don't count sorry not sorry. Anyways it's two projects. Big Thief and her solo stuff under her own name. Big Thief I find slightly easier to put words to it so we're gonna go with that first.
There aren't many groups I can convincingly say I love as much as Big Thief coming over the last decade or so. This isn't discounting anyone or anything, but Big Thief have made their mark in my mind that not many have had. Most of the time it's because on a lot of the tracks that aren't essentially spearheaded Adrianne Lenker solo tracks with more overt production, she is undeniably awesome. If there is one thing missing from her solo tracks, is that sometimes she can be fucking awesome. "Real Love", "Masterpiece", "Little Things", even some more hushed tracks such as "Simulation Swarm". There is undeniably beauty in Big Thief's tracks as well, my personal favourite album from them being "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", however fucking convoluted and long that album title is, I can guarantee you, you'll think that the album is more convoluted and long than that. However unlike most albums that would fit that description, Dragon New Warm Mountain is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, it takes you on an absolute journey that not many can I'll tell you, and you never really feel the length on that album. Listen to it please, if this description doesn't particularly sway you, well, I don't entirely know what will it's one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, also all the other albums while I don't have as much to say about them, "Masterpiece", "Capacity", "U.F.O.F" and "Two Hands" are all quite good as well I must say, just listen to all of them seriously.
Alright, now I have to go into why I love her solo stuff, which, man. I don't really know how to put this into words. I'm writing this while listening to "Bright Future" for like the tenth time since it came out like a week ago. It might be my favourite album by her yet, and this is after I reached my unbridled obsession with her music. It's just so good. While I do love Big Thief I cannot deny her solo stuff is far far better. The solo versions of some of the Big Thief tracks such as "Vampire Empire" and "Terminal Paradise", I love a lot more than the Big Thief versions, as good as those songs are, I cannot quite reach the same connection as I did to when I listened to the solo versions. They felt more real. And all the albums are amazing, "songs" and "Bright Future" especially, probably a couple of my top 5 albums from the decade thus far. There isn't really much else to say. Just listen to all of it, she's got one of my favourite discographies of all time.
Alright. I've halted long enough. Voice. This is a vocal summary. I need to do vocal summary stuff.
So as stated, she is probably one of my favourite singers, ever? maybe? And while I can't put into words directly why, I'm going to try. Lenker is a relatively low-placed vocalist. You probably wouldn't be able to decipher this from just listening to a couple of her songs, but she most definitely is. The reason why you most likely won't be able to pick it apart is because for pretty much the entirety of her career, she has developed two distinct tones within her voice. One being her natural tone, quite a gritty, vibrato heavy tone that usually stays on the lower end of her range and for the most part disappearing past B♭4, exemplified on songs such as "Mythological Beauty", "Not", and throughout the current middle chunk of the Big Thief era, and recently being brought back with heavy swing on songs such as "Sadness as a Gift" or most of "Bright Future".
The other tone she usually switches to (and for the most part, while I do love the tone she uses within those songs, I slightly prefer this one), is a more ethereal, higher up tone that she chooses. This tone is used much more predominantly in her solo work, so thing tracks such as "anything", "not a lot, just forever", most of Hours Were The Birds, etc. and this tone is probably the main reason you would not pick her as a low placed vocalist, because she can use this part of her range insanely well, "Real Love", "Gone", "Disappear", "Ruined", "Angels" all of those songs put her high range absolutely to the test and can bring apart a lot of beauty within this part of her range, creating immense versatility. A reason why her music never particularly gets boring is because from time to time these types of songs never really sound like they are from one entity. You probably wouldn't immediately tell that the woman singing on "Steamboat" and "half return" is the same person as who is singing on "Certainty" and "Change", or even part of "Vampire Empire", "Sadness as a Gift" and "Forgotten Eyes".
Despite all this, she never really utilizes the full depth of her range. By looking at this thread you may notice that she is quite comfortable in her extremities. "Betsy" in particularly she sings around the lower third, upper second octave throughout the entirety of the song, and some songs such as "Replaced" and "Change" further exemplifies this. And if you only looked at Big Thief and her solo stuff, you probably wouldn't think she has much high range at all. However, you can see the absolute giraffe neck that this thread has created, and in her earlier days she did this almost insane surf punk sorta singing high with no care in the world? I don't really know how to describe it, but she can most definitely sing high if you were to check out the Pencil EPs, which are unavaliable on YouTube if for whatever reason you wanted to see Adrianne Lenker doing careless surf punk which I must say was quite enjoyable, but it proves her falsetto mix and just regular falsetto is pretty great as well so why not?
Anyways, congratulations if you have actually read through all of this, I hope some of this puts you onto her music because as I have stated she is quite literally one of my favourite (if not my overall favourite) singers of all time. And she has made some of the greatest songs I have heard in fucking ages. So yeah, listen to all albums by Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker, if you do genuinely want to know where to start, you can ask what I'd recommend personally. But for now all I have to say is, listen to her music. She is amazing. Thank you.
TL;DR courtesy of IhateMana: Adrianne Lenker sings like she's a cowboy. She is not. She is from Indiana. She has a grandmother called Dianne Lee apparently.
Written by Bink
{Old Vocal Summary}You know I had a big vocal summary planned but honestly that would not do her justice. I'll give you a few dot points.
- Actually has two distinct tones, one is a more breathy sound with heavy falsetto mix, the other one is her natural tone which is actually quite low placed and chesty.
- Has demonstrated ability to get down into the second octave despite never using it which annoys me
- Her actual range is unusually large, she just for some reason literally never uses all of it which annoys me slightly
- Awesome falsetto abilities
- Possibly my favorite singer ever.
Genuinely one of my favorite singers ever y'all. Listen to everything by Big Thief and her solo stuff now.
- Actually has two distinct tones, one is a more breathy sound with heavy falsetto mix, the other one is her natural tone which is actually quite low placed and chesty.
- Has demonstrated ability to get down into the second octave despite never using it which annoys me
- Her actual range is unusually large, she just for some reason literally never uses all of it which annoys me slightly
- Awesome falsetto abilities
- Possibly my favorite singer ever.
Genuinely one of my favorite singers ever y'all. Listen to everything by Big Thief and her solo stuff now.
So I have been contemplating writing this one for a while because it's a little bit hard to describe how Adrianne Lenker and her music works for me. How I ramble forever about how this works for me. But it's not really something I can describe. While she is possibly my favourite singer ever (barring like, Marvin Gaye, Jeff and Tim Buckley maybe) I have ever heard I could not for life of me tell you why this is the case. Unlike the other three I could tell you exactly why I love their voices and music. While I can describe why I love Adrianne's music, and trust me I will in a moment, her voice is a little bit of anomaly for me, she is not overtly flashy or anything, it just works so fucking well that I cannot pull it beyond that.
Alright but before I get to talking about her voice, this is a vocal summary after all yaknow, but I have to talk about her music. Forgive the stream of conciousness writing for all of this. If you've read other vocal summaries of mine you would know this is nothing new.
Alright. Music. Adrianne has two distinct projects tied to her name, yes you can look at the "Associated Acts" category and see two others but no one knows those outside of a few people so they don't count sorry not sorry. Anyways it's two projects. Big Thief and her solo stuff under her own name. Big Thief I find slightly easier to put words to it so we're gonna go with that first.
There aren't many groups I can convincingly say I love as much as Big Thief coming over the last decade or so. This isn't discounting anyone or anything, but Big Thief have made their mark in my mind that not many have had. Most of the time it's because on a lot of the tracks that aren't essentially spearheaded Adrianne Lenker solo tracks with more overt production, she is undeniably awesome. If there is one thing missing from her solo tracks, is that sometimes she can be fucking awesome. "Real Love", "Masterpiece", "Little Things", even some more hushed tracks such as "Simulation Swarm". There is undeniably beauty in Big Thief's tracks as well, my personal favourite album from them being "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", however fucking convoluted and long that album title is, I can guarantee you, you'll think that the album is more convoluted and long than that. However unlike most albums that would fit that description, Dragon New Warm Mountain is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, it takes you on an absolute journey that not many can I'll tell you, and you never really feel the length on that album. Listen to it please, if this description doesn't particularly sway you, well, I don't entirely know what will it's one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard, also all the other albums while I don't have as much to say about them, "Masterpiece", "Capacity", "U.F.O.F" and "Two Hands" are all quite good as well I must say, just listen to all of them seriously.
Alright, now I have to go into why I love her solo stuff, which, man. I don't really know how to put this into words. I'm writing this while listening to "Bright Future" for like the tenth time since it came out like a week ago. It might be my favourite album by her yet, and this is after I reached my unbridled obsession with her music. It's just so good. While I do love Big Thief I cannot deny her solo stuff is far far better. The solo versions of some of the Big Thief tracks such as "Vampire Empire" and "Terminal Paradise", I love a lot more than the Big Thief versions, as good as those songs are, I cannot quite reach the same connection as I did to when I listened to the solo versions. They felt more real. And all the albums are amazing, "songs" and "Bright Future" especially, probably a couple of my top 5 albums from the decade thus far. There isn't really much else to say. Just listen to all of it, she's got one of my favourite discographies of all time.
Alright. I've halted long enough. Voice. This is a vocal summary. I need to do vocal summary stuff.
So as stated, she is probably one of my favourite singers, ever? maybe? And while I can't put into words directly why, I'm going to try. Lenker is a relatively low-placed vocalist. You probably wouldn't be able to decipher this from just listening to a couple of her songs, but she most definitely is. The reason why you most likely won't be able to pick it apart is because for pretty much the entirety of her career, she has developed two distinct tones within her voice. One being her natural tone, quite a gritty, vibrato heavy tone that usually stays on the lower end of her range and for the most part disappearing past B♭4, exemplified on songs such as "Mythological Beauty", "Not", and throughout the current middle chunk of the Big Thief era, and recently being brought back with heavy swing on songs such as "Sadness as a Gift" or most of "Bright Future".
The other tone she usually switches to (and for the most part, while I do love the tone she uses within those songs, I slightly prefer this one), is a more ethereal, higher up tone that she chooses. This tone is used much more predominantly in her solo work, so thing tracks such as "anything", "not a lot, just forever", most of Hours Were The Birds, etc. and this tone is probably the main reason you would not pick her as a low placed vocalist, because she can use this part of her range insanely well, "Real Love", "Gone", "Disappear", "Ruined", "Angels" all of those songs put her high range absolutely to the test and can bring apart a lot of beauty within this part of her range, creating immense versatility. A reason why her music never particularly gets boring is because from time to time these types of songs never really sound like they are from one entity. You probably wouldn't immediately tell that the woman singing on "Steamboat" and "half return" is the same person as who is singing on "Certainty" and "Change", or even part of "Vampire Empire", "Sadness as a Gift" and "Forgotten Eyes".
Despite all this, she never really utilizes the full depth of her range. By looking at this thread you may notice that she is quite comfortable in her extremities. "Betsy" in particularly she sings around the lower third, upper second octave throughout the entirety of the song, and some songs such as "Replaced" and "Change" further exemplifies this. And if you only looked at Big Thief and her solo stuff, you probably wouldn't think she has much high range at all. However, you can see the absolute giraffe neck that this thread has created, and in her earlier days she did this almost insane surf punk sorta singing high with no care in the world? I don't really know how to describe it, but she can most definitely sing high if you were to check out the Pencil EPs, which are unavaliable on YouTube if for whatever reason you wanted to see Adrianne Lenker doing careless surf punk which I must say was quite enjoyable, but it proves her falsetto mix and just regular falsetto is pretty great as well so why not?
Anyways, congratulations if you have actually read through all of this, I hope some of this puts you onto her music because as I have stated she is quite literally one of my favourite (if not my overall favourite) singers of all time. And she has made some of the greatest songs I have heard in fucking ages. So yeah, listen to all albums by Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker, if you do genuinely want to know where to start, you can ask what I'd recommend personally. But for now all I have to say is, listen to her music. She is amazing. Thank you.
TL;DR courtesy of IhateMana: Adrianne Lenker sings like she's a cowboy. She is not. She is from Indiana. She has a grandmother called Dianne Lee apparently.
Written by Bink
Significant High Notes:
C♯6 ("you got the dough?")
C6 ("Vampire Empire" live Ormond Castle 2024)
B5 ("Black Diamonds" live at The Bunker Studio)
B♭5 ("Walking in The Air")
A5 ("battery")
G♯5 ("you got the dough?")
G5 ("beach body")
F♯5 ("battery", "LA")
F5 ("Butterfly", "iris" car demo, "Jenni", "Mother")
E5 ("Animals", "beach body", "Black Diamonds" live at The Bunker Studio, "Gone", "LA", "new video game", "Real Love")
E♭5 ("Angels", "Fool", "half return", "Little Things", "Snow Song")
D5 ("battery", "Black Diamonds" live at The Bunker Studio, "Butterfly", "Capacity", "Carolina", "Disappear", "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", "Gone", "heavy focus", "Jenni", "LA", "Real Love", "Ringing Bells", "symbol", "Time Escaping", "Vampire Empire", "Watering")
C♯5 ("Black Diamonds", "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", "Forgotten Eyes" live at The Bunker Studio, "Haley", "Humans", "Indiana" Hours Were The Birds version, "iris" car demo, "I Still Hear You", "LA", "Let It Snow", "Lighthouse", "little kid", "Lorraine", "Masterpiece", "new video game", "New York City", "out of your mind", "Sparrow", "Steamboat", "Vampire Empire", "Vegas", "Walking in The Air")
C5 ("Animals", "A Better Time to Meet", "Blue Lightning", "Butterfly", "Capacity", "Cut My Hair", "Fool", "Forgotten Eyes", "half return", "Kerina", "Little Things", "Mary", "Money", "Mythological Beauty", "Off You", "Open Desert", "out of your mind", "Real Love", "Row", "Ruined", "Silver Bells", "Sparrow", "symbol", "terminal paradise", "Time Escaping", "Titanic", "Two Hands", "two reverse", "Wake Me Up to Drive", "Watering", "White Christmas", "zombie girl")
B4 ("Already Lost", "Angels", "Black Diamonds", "blue and red horses", "come", "Disappear", "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", "Gone", "Hours Were The Birds", "Humans", "Interstate", "A Love of Some Kind", "Masterpiece", "mona lisa", "No Machine", "Not" live at The Bunker Studio, "Parallels", "Paul", "Randy", "Red Moon", "Replaced", "Ringing Bells", "Shoulders", "Snow Song", "symbol", "Vampire Empire" Bright Future version, "Velvet Ring", "Wolf", "Yuki Onna")
B♭4 ("anything", "Blue Lightning", "Carolina", "Coma", "cradle", "Cut My Hair", "Dandelion", "Evol", "Fool", "Forgotten Eyes", "Free Treasure", "Haley", "half return", "Heavy Bend", "ingydar", "Interstate", "Jenni", "Johnathan", "Little Things", "Lorraine", "Love In Mine", "Kerina", "Magic Dealer", "Mary", "Money", "Mother", "Mythological Beauty", "New York City", "Orange", "Paul", "Pretty Things", "Real House", "Ruined", "Simulation Swarm", "Spud Infinity", "Steamboat", "terminal paradise", "Those Girls", "Time Escaping", "The Toy", "two reverse", "Walking in The Air", "Watering", "what can you say", "White Christmas")
A4 ("10 miles", "Animals", "Black Diamonds", "Butterfly", "Carolina", "Certainty", "Contact", "Flower of Blood", "forwards beckon rebound", "I Still Hear You", "Let It Snow", "Lighthouse", "Love Love Love", "Mary", "Masterpiece", "mona lisa", "Mythological Beauty", "new video game", "No Reason", "Not" live at The Bunker Studio, "Off You", "The Only Place", "Open Desert", "Parallels", "Promise is a Pendulum", "Randy", "Real Love", "Red Moon", "Ruined", "Shoulders", "Strange", "Those Girls", "Titanic", "Two Hands", "UFOF", "Vampire Empire", "Vegas", "Velvet Ring", "Wolf")
Significant Low Notes:
A3 ("Already Lost", "Animals", "Black Diamonds", "Born For Loving You", "Butterfly", "Certainty", "Disappear", "dragon eyes", "Flower of Blood", "Gone", "Great White Shark", "I Still Hear You", "Jenni", "Let It Snow", "Lighthouse", "Little Arrow", "Money", "No Reason", "Objects", "Randy", "Real Love", "Red Moon", "Ringing Bells", "Ruined", "Sadness as a Gift", "Shoulders", "Those Girls", "Vampire Empire", "Vegas", "Watering")
G♯3 ("12,000 Lines", "Blue Lightning", "Cattails", "Cell Phone Says", "Century", "Cut My Hair", "Dandelion", "Donut Seam", "Free Treasure", "from", "Hours Were The Birds", "Indiana", "Interstate", "Lorraine", "A Love of Some Kind", "Mother", "New York City", "Parallels", "Pretty Things", "Shark Smile", "Silver Bells", "Sparrow", "Steamboat", "Walking in The Air", "zombie girl")
G3 ("10 miles", "abyss kiss", "Candleflame", "Capacity", "cradle", "Gone", "Miss Misty", "Money", "No Machine", "Promise is a Pendulum", "Replaced", "Ringing Bells", "Row", "Ruined", "Sparrow", "Vampire Empire" Bright Future version, "Velvet Ring", "Wake Me Up to Drive", "Yuki Onna")
F♯3 ("Black Diamonds", "Carolina", "Disappear", "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You", "Dried Roses", "Haley", "Interstate", "I Still Hear You", "Shark Smile", "Snow Song", "UFOF", "you got the dough?", "Yuki Onna")
F3 ("10 miles", "A Better Time to Meet", "Blue Lightning", "Butterfly", "Change", "Coma", "cradle", "Indiana" a-sides version, "Mythological Beauty", "Objects", "Open Desert", "Watering", "White Christmas")
E3 ("10 miles", "Black Diamonds" live at The Bunker Studio, "Born For Loving You", "Certainty", "No Reason", "Wake Me Up to Drive")
E♭3 ("A Better Time to Meet", "Blue Lightning", "Change", "Cut My Hair", "Fool", "Haley", "Pretty Things", "Sparrow", "Vampire Empire" live Ormond Castle 2024, "zombie girl")
D3 ("Replaced", "Strange")
C♯3 ("12,000 Lines", "Betsy", "Black Diamonds" live at The Bunker Studio, "Hours Were The Birds")
B2 ("Hours Were The Birds")
B♭2 ("Betsy")
.......................................................
Underlines mark notes that are obscured in the song mix.
Italics mark non-melodic notes.
Boldface marks notes that are considered to be particularly notable examples of this person's vocal capabilities.
Best Vocal Performances:
1. Gone
2. Real Love
3. Disappear
4. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
5. Ruined
6. Mythological Beauty
7. Vampire Empire Bright Future version
8. Sadness as a Gift
9. Angels
10. Sparrow
11. Shoulders
12. Fool
13. Symbol
14. Little Things
15. Two Hands
{Spoiler}{Album Ranges}Big Thief:
Masterpiece (2016): F♯3 - E5
Capacity (2017): E♭3 - D5
U.F.O.F. (2019): B♭2 - F5
Two Hands (2019): D3 - C5
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (2022): C♯3 - E♭5
Solo:
Hours Were The Birds (2014): B2 - F5
Abysskiss (2018): E3 - D5
songs (2020): E♭3 - E♭5
Bright Future (2024): E♭3 - E♭5
Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek:
A-Sides (2014): F3 - C5
B-Sides (2014): E♭3 - E♭5
Pencil/Christmas in July:
Christmas is a Feeling (2012): F3 - B♭5
no. 1 (2015): B3 - A5
no. 2 (2015): F♯3 - C♯6
Masterpiece (2016): F♯3 - E5
Capacity (2017): E♭3 - D5
U.F.O.F. (2019): B♭2 - F5
Two Hands (2019): D3 - C5
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (2022): C♯3 - E♭5
Solo:
Hours Were The Birds (2014): B2 - F5
Abysskiss (2018): E3 - D5
songs (2020): E♭3 - E♭5
Bright Future (2024): E♭3 - E♭5
Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek:
A-Sides (2014): F3 - C5
B-Sides (2014): E♭3 - E♭5
Pencil/Christmas in July:
Christmas is a Feeling (2012): F3 - B♭5
no. 1 (2015): B3 - A5
no. 2 (2015): F♯3 - C♯6
{Spoiler}{Questionable Notes}
G♯5 ("Little Things"[1])
F♯5 ("Red Moon"[1])
B4 ("Not"[5])
G♯3 ("Masterpiece"[1])
F3 ("Walking in The Air"[5] kinda sounds like she should reach this note but it is so goddamn quiet that i can't tell)
A2 ("Real Love"[2][4])
F2 ("Betsy"[5])
.......................................................
[1] marks yelps and short trills in high range or anacrusis and short dips in low range.
[2] marks notes of questionable identity that cannot be confirmed to be the singer in question.
[3] marks non-melodic notes that don't have a significant enough pitch to warrant inclusion.
[4] marks notes that possess uncertain pitch or have been pitch-shifted.
[5] marks notes that do not fit the previous criteria but are not of a substantial enough quality to warrant counting towards the singer's range.
G♯5 ("Little Things"[1])
F♯5 ("Red Moon"[1])
B4 ("Not"[5])
G♯3 ("Masterpiece"[1])
F3 ("Walking in The Air"[5] kinda sounds like she should reach this note but it is so goddamn quiet that i can't tell)
A2 ("Real Love"[2][4])
F2 ("Betsy"[5])
.......................................................
[1] marks yelps and short trills in high range or anacrusis and short dips in low range.
[2] marks notes of questionable identity that cannot be confirmed to be the singer in question.
[3] marks non-melodic notes that don't have a significant enough pitch to warrant inclusion.
[4] marks notes that possess uncertain pitch or have been pitch-shifted.
[5] marks notes that do not fit the previous criteria but are not of a substantial enough quality to warrant counting towards the singer's range.
