Birds, time, love and slowness bounce through indie-pop singer-songwriter Lenka’s most recent release, Attune, creating a breathy, whimsical album. It’s like wandering through an indie Rom-Com or Kodak camera advertisement. This album includes a song which is just forty seconds of the singer singing ‘boom’ over a twinkling piano melody.
This album perhaps lacks specificity and stand-out images in the songwriting, tending to focus on universals, which when combined with gentle folk-pop production values prevents strong individual impact, despite each song being individually well-polished. It is perhaps too safe. But it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling after listening to it.
The early songs particularly felt like Enya-esque nursery rhymes. Melodic, with plenty of hand-clapping and vocal echoes, and some coy lyrics. ‘Let’s continue the species / expand our family tree’ in ‘Homo Sapiens’ stands out from otherwise self-knowingly wholesome songs. There was variation: folk, soulful jazz, and some fun ukulele pop, while maintaining cohesion within the songs.
Each song had a clear intention, and they thematically linked with a circular death/life progression motif. The jazz-influenced single ‘Heal’ with its call to ‘heal our wounds / heal each other’ perhaps sums up the mission of the album, to create a safe, welcoming space and celebrate small victories in times of turmoil.
3/5
Sony Music
Reviewed by Brianna Courtney Bullen
