Big Thief crept up on us stealthily like one would expect any big thief would – quietly and successfully.
The band centres around songwriter, guitarist and singer Adrianne Lenker and guitarist, songwriter and sometimes singer Buck Meek. Lenker’s voice is fragile, a delicate, pleading expression. Her songwriting is powerful, straddling a space between intimacy and rawness, the band somewhere among folk and indie. The mix is vital, sometimes subversive, always surprising. And as talented as Lenker is, so Meek plays the perfect foil, beefing up or stripping away the sound, adding production, completing the songs.
Their first two albums Masterpiece (a title lacking modesty but showing promise, especially the noisy title track) and Capacity began the build. A sort of alt-rock gave way to indie folk on their two album releases in 2019, the more completed U.F.O.F, possibly their best album yet, and the sparser Two Hands, both of which featured in my year-end wrap of favourite albums and cemented their reputation.
Lenker and Meek move between solo and band projects and recently, Big Thief released their latest, Double Infinity. I listened to Los Angeles, my top track from it, and also some favourites from their back catalogue this week, like Cattails, the rockier Born For Loving You, the pensive Change and Forgotten Eyes, this Friday’s song.
On Forgotten Eyes, the strum, the drum and the voice are hypnotic, the tone surreal and the vocal reminiscent of perhaps Iris DeMent or Karen Peris, but even more “broken”, and the song is quintessential Big Thief. Happy weekend!
I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. You’ll read it here on a Sunday. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.
Listen to Forgotten Eyes on Spotify here and Apple Music here.
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