Songs and Instrumentals are two distinct collections, both written and recorded in April 2020 after Big Thief's March tour was abruptly cut short due to Coronavirus. After returning to the states from Europe, frontman Adrianne Lenker decamped to a one room cabin in the mountains of western Massachusetts. ""I grew really connected to the space itself,"" says Lenker. ""The one room cabin felt like the inside of an acoustic guitar - it was such a joy to hear the notes reverberate in the space."" With a hankering to capture the feel of the space, Lenker enlisted the help of engineer Philip Weinrobe, gathering a mass of tape machines, a binaural head, and a pile of XLR cables.