Photo by Germaine Dunes

Adrianne Lenker’s gift is that of a songwriting storyteller who can effortlessly can make plaintive emotions stop you dead in your tracks when caught between the fingertips and lips of her own singular melody and wordsmith ways. On “Sadness As a Gift”, the latest single from the Big Thief frontperson’s forthcoming solo album, Bright Future, the end times of a relationship make for something both broken and beautiful. The listen overflows its rustic hearth — a humble, dressed down path down backroads folkwork, detailed in fiddle, slide guitars, and melancholic harmony. “Leaning on the windowsill / You could write me someday, and  I  think  you will / We could  see the sadness  as a gift and still / Feel too heavy to hold,” she sings. Though the weight of a breakup presses inward, Lenker considers it all with the kind of grace we wish we all had during these moments of weakness.

Adrianne Lenker’s Bright Future will be released March 22nd on 4AD.