A lot of space in this thread is devoted to represses of audiophile quality, and of course that’s justified because there are a lot of those out there, and more coming all the time. But it sure is nice to find an album that gets it right the first time, so I want to shine a light on Adrianne Lenker’s Songs and Instrumentals. I picked this up recently and just have been listening to it for the first time. It’s 2 LP’s. Side 1 is comprised of Lenker’s voice, her acoustic guitar and some subtle nature sounds, with a number of instrumental and vocal overdubs. Side 2 is just voice and guitar (and subtle nature sounds) with no overdubs. Side 3 is just guitar, nature sounds and wind chimes. Side 4 begins with the same, but the guitar disappears and then it’s just the nature sounds and chimes. It’s a quiet acoustic album, and when you read about the rustic setting and somewhat antiquated approach to recording the sessions direct to tape in a cabin in some Massachussets backwoods, the audiophile quality of the recordings is very impressive. The vinyl is dead quiet and everything else is downright beautiful. The quality of the music itself is no real surprise given Lenker’s track record, but the breathtaking intimacy of it as captured here is really something special. If you’re a Big Thief and/or Lenker fan and you don’t have this album, grab it while you can.