The thing I love most about Lenka and her music is how fun and quirky they both are. Whenever Lenka releases a new album, I know I’m in for a good time, and Attune is no different. From the unique instruments like a clap machine (“Flesh And Bone”) or a xylophone (“Crystal Ball”), to a song with “Boom” being the only lyric, all the way to a cheerful song about death (“Disappear”); Attune doesn’t take itself or anything too seriously.
Most of the songs on Attune are about love. Lenka is either busy singing the praises of her partner (“Lucky”) or hunting her love down like prey (“Animal (River Spirits)”). Sometimes relationships hit a rough patch and an “Arrow” pierces your heart although you know it won’t turn out well or you’ve both been ‘burned by the fire” so you have to “build a bridge to “Heal” each other”. My favorite song on the album has to be “Bittersweet”, which is all sweet to me. It’s about “a lot of love and a little pain” that is both creepy and uplifting at the same time.
The song that best defines how one-of-a-kind Lenka is would have to be “Homo Sapien”. She condenses the story of life down to thee minutes and fifty-seven seconds. It’s the least sexiest of love songs. She sings of evolving to love her homo sapien so they can “procreate” to “continue the species”. Procreate? Maybe straight people find dirty talk like that arousing when they do their intercoursing. However it’s when you back those lyrics with a distorted carousel beat that does it for me.
In my gay opinion, Attune is the feel good album of this year, or any year for that matter, at least until Lenka releases her next album.
