Indie folk and Americana band Big Thief are based in Brooklyn, but their sound recalls the rustic feel of The Band, Gillian Welch, and Neil Young. Along with songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Adrianne Lenker, Big Thief’s current lineup also includes Buck Meek on guitar and backup vocals, Max Oleartchik on bass, and James Krivchenia on drums; all four members attended the Berklee College of Music.
Lenker’s a fascinating personality, and Big Thief’s backwoods sound is perhaps explained by her unusual experiences growing up; her family lived in a van after leaving a religious cult. Lenker didn’t attend high school, but went to Berklee via a Susan Tedeschi scholarship for her songwriting potential. Lenker’s not a commanding front-women – her voice is thin and fractured, while her lyrics are clearly the product of a deep thinker.
I feel like I’m searching for something in music or in art, just searching for something that is completely invisible, intangible, immeasurable. But I know when I feel closer to it, it’s like this kind of magic that lets you know that magic is real, that there are things and courses that are much more vast than our small finite human experience, and that there is true connectivity among humans. Feeling the energy in a room. What does that even mean, “energy in a room”? How can we feel each other like that? And yet it feels good to get closer to that.
Big Thief have quickly released five albums since debuting with 2016’s Masterpiece, including the critically acclaimed pair of U.F.O.F. and Two Hands in 2019. Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker have also released solo records.
2016, 7/10 Before Big Thief were formed, Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek played in a duo. They recruited Meek’s old friend Max Oleartchik on bass, while the drummer on Masterpiece is Jason Burger; current drummer James Krivchenia engineered the record. With Burger on drums, Masterpiece lacks the synergistic interplay of Big Thief’s best work, and instead Burger’s thump gives the group more of a straightforward rock feel. Masterpiece was recorded at a friend’s lake house over 12 days, using Lenker’s recent purchase; her first electric guitar.
Masterpiece opens misleadingly with ‘Little Arrow’, a primitive sounding song snippet, before delivering the punchy title track. The more conventionally rocking material like ‘Interstate’ and ‘Vegas’ is clustered at the front of the record – the second half is stronger as Big Thief cover more esoteric material. ‘Paul’ is a gorgeous character sketch – it sounds like it’s addressed to an ex-lover (“I realized there was no one who could kiss away my shit”), but it actually records Lenker’s internal monologue. The closer ‘Parallels’ finds a middle ground between the record’s rock feel and the mystic Americana that Big Thief excel at.
Masterpiece isn’t quite what it claims in its title, but it’s a very good debut that’s been left behind by Big Thief’s phenomenal development.
Capacity
2017, 8/10 Big Thief recruited drummer James Krivchenia for their second record – his light touch is much better suited to Lenker’s delicate vocals and songs. There are still bursts of rawness, like ‘Shark Smile’ and ‘Watering’, but Big Thief sound much more refined on Capacity. The cover of Capacity shows Lenker’s uncle holding her as a baby.
Capacity begins with Lenker performing solo on ‘Pretty Things’. Like Masterpiece, the noisier songs are clustered towards the start, and the standouts are the gentler songs near the end. ‘Mythological Beauty’ is deeply autobiographical, Lenker recalling her early life; “You held me in the backseat with a dishrag, soaking up blood with your eyes/I was just five and you were twenty-seven/Praying “don’t let my baby die.” ‘Mary’ is even more fragile, with Lenker’s pretty melody supported by gentle piano.
Capacity is a significant step forward from Masterpiece, the band’s more delicate touch showcasing Lenker’s songs.
U.F.O.F
2019, 9.5/10 The whisper of haunted Americana has always been present on Big Thief’s records, but it’s more prominent on their third record. U.F.O.F. was recorded in a damp log cabin in Washington State, and it captures The Band’s aura of old-time Americana and taps into the mystic folk aura of Van Morrison’s early solo records. Lenker’s haunting, near-whispering voice is reminiscent of Marianne Faithfull, and it carries gravitas. She’s often a detached observer, like this couplet from standout track ‘Cattails’.
Violet’s eyes, Violet plays Going back home to the Great Lakes Where the cattail sways With the lonesome loon Riding that train in late June
‘Cattails’ is performed by only half the band – Lenker accompanies herself adeptly on 12-string guitar, with only Krivchenia’s splashy drums for backup. Opener ‘Contact’ ratchets up from U.F.O.F.‘s introspective indie-folk into an intense coda of guitar riffing and screaming. More often the band sticks to introspective, mystic folk – the final F. in U.F.O.F. stands for friend.
It’s not the most immediate album, but U.F.O.F. is stunning, a record of almost limitless depth and character.
Two Hands
2019, 9/10 Big Thief started recording Two Hands five days after completing U.F.O.F.. In comparison with the mystical backwoods atmosphere of U.F.O.F., Two Hands was recorded in the Texas desert with minimal overdubs and reflects the surroundings with a dry and crackling sound.
Two Hands is often based around electric instruments. The harder-edged pieces like ‘Forgotten Eyes’ and ‘Shoulders’ recall the primal energy of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Vocalist Adrianne Lenker’s thin, emotional voice recalls Young’s pinched whine, while the band’s intuitive interplay recalls Crazy Horse, even though their touch is far lighter than the Horse’s primeval stomp.
It’s particularly effective when Lenker’s voice creaks on the second track ‘Forgotten Eyes’. Her raw vocal performance is the highlight of the song, cracking on “everybody needs a home and deserves protection”. Even more epic is ‘Not’, Lenker spitting out a series of images (“It’s not the hunger revealing/Nor the ricochet in the cave/Nor the hand that is healing/Nor the nameless grave”) before the band launches into a lengthy instrumental, showcasing Buck Meek’s guitar soloing, again reminiscent of Neil Young.
The raw rock of ‘Not’, ‘Forgotten Eyes’, and ‘Shoulders’ leave the biggest impression from Two Hands, coming after the subdued mysticism of U.F.O.F.. The intricate guitars of ‘Two Hands’ and the gentle opener ‘Rock and Sing’ would have fitted onto U.F.O.F., even though the overall sound of Two Hands is rawer and more cathartic. Two Hands is a more straightforward record than the band’s previous two efforts, which makes it a good place to start with Big Thief.
U.F.O.F. and Two Hands are both high among my favourite albums of 2019. If forced to choose a favourite, I’d opt for the dense backwoods mysticism of U.F.O.F., but the sparse desert crackle of Two Hands is an excellent companion piece.
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
2022, 9.5/10 Big Thief’s fifth album comes across as their bid for a deserved legacy. It’s a double album, filled with musings on mortality – it feels tailor-made for future editions of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. If so, it’s thoroughly deserved – the band have continued to hone their craft, with Adrianne Lenker’s shaman-like vocals floating over the band’s intuitive interplay. Even though it’s a lengthy double, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is Big Thief’s most accessible album to date – the songs are more direct and more diverse than ever before.
Drummer James Krivchenia produces for the first time, and also suggested the album’s concept – the tracks were recorded in four different studios, with four different engineers, in order to capture the range of Lenker’s songwriting. The 20-song tracklist was chosen from 45 songs, and with a band in their prime, it’s an embarrassment of riches. It often returns to its bedrock of acoustic folk and country, but it takes in psychedelia and rock.
For naysayers who despair of the state of modern music, fabulous country-tinged tunes like ‘Red Moon’ and ‘No Reason’ are timeless and elegant. The band also sound terrific on rockier tunes – the buzzing guitars of ‘Simulation Swarm’ and the bass riff of ‘Little Things’ are among the finest moments on a great record. Given the amount that the other band members add to the arrangements, I never realised that Lenker’s the sole credited writer on most Big Thief songs. Her musings on morality, are singular – on ‘Spud Infinity’ she sings “Baking too long in the sun of spud infinity”.
Big Thief are the premier indie rock band right now, and Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is their most accessible record yet.
Ten Best Big Thief Songs
Not Cattails Simulation Swarm Mythological Beauty Little Things Contact Forgotten Eyes No Reason Paul Mary
Solo Albums
Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker have recorded a bunch of solo material, as well as records as a duo. I’ve only covered Lenker’s 2020 release Songs.
Songs – Adrianne Lenker
2020, 8.5/10 Adrianne Lenker has made solo albums before – she released Stages of the Sun as a 15-year-old, with a disconcertingly glossy cover, and also released Hours Were The Birds in 2013 and Abysskiss in 2018. Songs, released in a joint package with Instrumentals, follows in the wake of a breakout year in 2019 for Big Thief, with U.F.O.F. and Two Hands both receiving acclaim.
Where U.F.O.F., in particular, was a dense record that took time to appreciate, Songs is pared down to just Lenker and her guitar. Lenker’s easily talented enough to carry a solo project alone – Lenker’s guitar work is distinctive and interesting. Lenker’s songwriting voice is even more distinctive – she sometimes reminds me of a female Neil Young, with a thin emotive voice and a unique perspective. Lenker’s songs always feel like she sees the world, and hears music, a little differently than everyone else, and she’s letting us on her viewpoint.
In the interview cycle for Songs Lenker’s discussed the dissolution of a five-year marriage to Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek. She’s particularly emotionally vulnerable on ‘Not A Lot, Just Forever’, where she sings “And your dearest fantasy/Is to grow a baby in me/I could be a good mother.”
Lenker’s guitar picking and keening voice are beautiful on ‘Anything’. Most of my favourites are clustered at the end of Songs – like its predecessor ‘Not A Lot, Just Forever’, ‘Dragon Eyes’ is straightforward and emotional. Closer ‘My Angel’ is atmospheric and its sudden ending is a reminder of the rough-hewn origins of Songs. It was recorded on an 8-track tape machine in a wood cabin in Massachusetts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lenker’s one of music’s most compelling artistic voices right now, and Songs is almost as intriguing as Big Thief’s two records from 2020.
Buck Meek
Two Saviors
2020, 7/10 Buck Meek is best known for his work with Big Thief, playing Dave Rawlings to Adrianne Lenker’s Gillian Welch. While Welch and Lenker are quite different artists, Rawlings and Meek are much more similar, both with a laidback drawl. Lenker is the main songwriter for Big Thief, and Two Saviours is more relaxed than usual intensity. Two Saviours was recorded in New Orleans, with Meek and Big Thief producer Andrew Sarlo often capturing performances at first take. Meek’s brother Dylan plays organ.
It can be difficult to take Meek seriously – his gently rustic voice doesn’t always convey emotion effectively, and he seems most at home on trivial songs like ‘Ham on White’ (as it sounds, it’s about making a ham sandwich). The slow and mournful ‘Dream Daughter’ is lovely. Lenker receives a songwriting credit on ‘Candle’ – Meek wrote the rest of the song after she texted him the first verse.
In the hierarchy of Big Thief and its spin-offs, Meek’s a clear third behind the parent band and Lenker’s solo work, but I’m still glad that he’s making enjoyable records like Two Saviors.
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
The members of The dB’s are all from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, also the birthplace of Mitch Easter (Let’s Active) and Ben Folds. As teens, future dB’s Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple joined Easter in a band named Rittenhouse Square, playing Wishbone Ash covers and recording a six-song album. Holsapple also […]
Jars of Clay were formed when keyboardist Charlie Lowell met vocalist Dan Haseltine at Greenville College, Illinois; Lowell initially noticed Haseltine’s Toad The Wet Sprocket t-shirt. The four-piece band was completed with guitarists Stephen Mason and Matt Odmark – unusually, the group don’t have a permanent rhythm section. The members […]
Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam was born in London but spent most of her childhood in Sri Lanka, where her father was a Tamil activist. She originally planned a career in the visual arts but pivoted to a music career after she made a documentary about Elastica and met electroclash artist Peaches. […]
Natalie Prass was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. She went to Berklee College of Music and served as a keyboardist in Jenny Lewis’ backing band. Prass signed with Matthew E. White’s Spacebomb Records and released her debut album in 2015. Prass’ career is only two […]
Pearl Jam grew from the remnants of Mother Love Bone, whose singer Andrew Wood overdosed. Rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament started a new band with Mike McCready on lead guitar and recruited surfer Eddie Vedder as their vocalist. The band have gone through a succession of drummers who […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Classically trained pianist Irmin Schmidt and music teacher Holger Czukay studied under Stockhausen. Both tuned into rock music as it progressed in the mid-1960s. Czukay’s student Michael Karoli played him The Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’, while Schmidt discovered the music of Frank Zappa, James Brown, and The Velvet Underground […]
The Decemberists rode the wave of early 21st century Indie to success, attracting attention with their predilection for historic epics and olde English folk music. They hail from Portland, Oregon, but the band was named for the Decembrist Revolution in 19th century Imperial Russia. The band’s invented back story describes […]
Frederic Fatzer grew up in the small town of Kinsley, Kansas, notable for its equidistance between New York City and San Francisco. He sensibly adopted the stage name Freedy Johnston. His small town background initially constrained his music career – with no local music store, he bought his first guitar […]
Birmingham band The Moody Blues have one of the most misleading names in popular music. It fit to start with – their early repertoire was based on American blues, and their cover of Bessie Banks’ ‘Go Now’ topped the UK charts in early 1965. They played on the Ed Sullivan […]
The members of The Cars were all experienced musicians when they formed. Drummer David Robinson had already played with another famous Boston act, Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers. The band’s two vocalists – bassist Ben Orr and songwriter Ric Ocasek – had played together in Milkwood, a folk rock band. They […]
Aaron Freeman (Gene Ween) met Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween) in their eighth-grade typing class in 1984. They made several homemade albums before their first official release, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, in 1990. Their fourth album, 1994’s Chocolate and Cheese, marked a change in course, recorded in a proper recording studio. It properly […]
