“I Know,” out 8/21, is a song about a doomed relationship, which falls apart over three verses with the choruses showing the narrator's knowledge that it's not going to work. That shift is there in the arrangement and production, which dramatically shift from electric guitars and driving drums in the verses to nylon-string guitar, whispered vocals and eventually cello in the choruses. An instrumental bridge with shifting harmonies and carried led by melodic bass and guitar line with shifting takes us narratively forward. The breakdown of the relationship is mirrored by the disintegrating rhyme scheme in the verses, too.

Written about 20 years ago and recorded last year, "I Know" has the legacy of late 90s/early 2000s indie (Grandaddy, Sparklehorse, Elliott Smith) filtered through the lens of contemporary production. The tracks highlights Lanier’s versatility as a guitar player, his trained composer’s arranging sensibilities, and the ways his producer/engineer skillset informs his own music making.