Having Trouble Meditating? Adrianne Lenker's 'instrumentals' Might Help
Sometime during "music for indigo," Lenker exhales, "I'm starting over" and, just like the wind changing direction, her strumming tenderly moves into a soft wave of relief and tranquility before neatly folding into the second half of the album, aptly titled "mostly chimes." On instrumentals' B-side, Lenker's rangy guitar is accompanied by playful songbirds just outside her window before the aforementioned chimes makes its pacifying entry. Seemingly unaffected by this instrumental shift, the birds continue their distant chirps and twitters to the rhythm of their own daily lives of catching worms and mating rituals.
This part of the record is entirely devoted to coaxing the listener into a meditative trance with the calming sounds of ASMR-like rustling of leaves and unexplained soft-socked footsteps. On instrumentals, Lenker settles down from songs' busier thoughts, indulging in the stoicism within to achieve moments of serenity, if only briefly. Deep breaths, everyone.