In the best art, time folds in on itself, a visible line that connects the past, present and future, with the work forever shifting and transforming with our own and the creatorโs evolution. Music thus isnโt just a document of a recorded moment, but a body that retains information and merges with the listenerโs identity. The most exceptional music is that which manages to, somehow, retain hidden meaningful elements within its constructs, which โ as the years pass โ suddenly reveal themselves: small, borderline inaudible glimpses which carry their own stories. Thatโs why we identify with them โ those moments stand parallel to the unspoken and unseen realities between where our heartbeats kick in.
To most, the stark line dividing Adrianne Lenkerโs buzz cut hair might just be that: some ragtag reminder of brief harm. But the scar has its own story: at five years old, Lenkerโs skull was cracked open in a domestic accident, almost ending her life. The image of the childโs head in her motherโs lap, the dishrag pressed to her head soaking up with blood, is reconfigured in the macabre and tender โMythological Beautyโ, recounted in first person.
Itโs there where Lenkerโs images reside, between beauty and the hideous, questioning identity and memory constantly at odds with themselves, yet accepting the contradictions that come with existence. During interviews, the singer takes long breaks, her gaze scanning the room, caught in a ray of light that hits an apple in the nearby fruit bowl or deep green in a particular plantโs leaf. Time seems to extend within her, space folds wide open. What she calls her โpsychedelic thinkingโ on full display, she can find eternity in a grain of sand. โIโm not quite sure if Iโm writing the songs from myself to my future child, or to my inner child, or from my mother to me,โ she recounted in an interview with Pitchfork, perfectly encapsulating the unique qualities found in her songwriting. Sheโs reflecting the typical traits of โ if you believe in such things โ the Cancerian personality type of sensitive and emotional artist we were told was lost to time when the 70s died.
It would be easy to just reduce Big Thief to Lenkerโs iconic genius, but the truth is that the group only works as a unit. Enriched by the talents of Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia, the four make all creative choices unanimously, move from place to place with each new session and use music as a dialogue.
With each new project, the group chooses a new geographical environment to record in, fashioning the music after their habitat, brazenly heading for unknown genre aesthetics and sonic experimentation. Their records could function as a road movie, reconnecting with Lenkerโs experience of her family skipping places after being brought up in a religious cult. As a teenager, the songwriter would never stay long in one place, often living with different people or families all over the country. While the bandโs first two albums reflected on autobiographical snapshots, Big Thief have since moved into more lyrical territory, catching poetic snapshots of things impossible to manifest: a ghostโs haunted presence in โJenniโ, the lovely smell of a difficult partner in โWolfโ, the loss of female innocence as observed by a father in โInterstateโ, the cosmic desire for freedom in the void of endless time in โThe Only Placeโ.
In Big Thiefโs music โ as in Lenkerโs eyes โ 10 seconds of silence, the brief feedback of a guitar, a sudden scream can hold eternity. But then, time moves on, the band leaves and finds a new place to record, their audience grow older. As time moves on, those moments amplify, unite with Lenkerโs poetry and the sometimes celestial, other times earthy instrumentation, and become their own stories.
Presence and personality oozes out of every song this band has recorded, and the 30 chosen below could easily have included an armada of others, such as: โAnimalsโ, โCut my Hairโ, โHaleyโ, โVelvet Ringโ, โCertaintyโ, โParallelsโ, โFlower of Bloodโ. But they donโt, and in the choices made, they reflect part of our staff, our own stories, which, at times, intersect with them. As a fellow Cancer with a tendency for head wounds, I can attest that what Lenker and her band has fashioned may be the best music of her generation. We witness the growth of a body into something larger than life, observing a legend in the making: never standing still, always in flux. – John Wohlmacher
Listen to a playlist of our top 30 Big Thief songs on Spotify
30. “Lorraine”
[Masterpiece, 2016]
Big Thiefโs debut, Masterpiece, features the band mining various rock and alt-rock sources. Their inchoate folk leanings, however, are represented by such tracks as โPaulโ and โLorraineโ, the latter of which unfolds like a two-minute singer-songwriter track, Adrianne Lenkerโs voice supported by a basic acoustic guitar part. Her lyrics point to an affinity for impressionistic portraiture and poetically eccentric phrasing (โYour new blue eyeliner caught my distractionโ). Her melody, though unflashy by pop standards, is sensual and immediately enrolling. Toward the end of the track, Lenker adds her own reverb-dabbed and compressed back-up vocal, the contrast between clean and modified sounds pointing to the sophisticated sonic paradoxes forged on and integral to later work, particularly Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. – John Amen
29. “Those Girls”
[Two Hands, 2019]
A particularly mysterious ballad on Two Hands, the nocturnal โThose Girlsโ returns to a sound familiar from The Beatles’ White Album. Recorded live, the track is of an intimate intensity, pushing the bass to the foreground and allowing Lenker a nakedly intense vocal performance. With eyes closed it almost feels like the listener is in the live presence of the band. This impression is further explored in the intimate lyrics to the track, which call for physical intimacy as shelter from the presence of something sinister.
Itโs impossible to tell if the demons present here are inner or outer entities positioned in the past or future. The image of โthose girlsโ is invoked, but never further explored past the ridicule and aggression they bring with them: โIsland, demons / Zoรซ, you come over now / ‘Cause those girls keep telling me things / And only you can hold them downโ. The lyrics are incredibly personal, yet manage to invoke a sense of longing that is universal. Ultimately, it doesnโt matter what haunts us โ our desire to find somebody who can drown out those voices that hold us back always remains. Sometimes itโs the small things that become the most meaningful, just as a single soul can change who we are. – John Wohlmacher
28. “Blurred View”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
With โBlurred Viewโ, one of the more seamlessly eclectic tracks on Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Big Thief draw, both instrumentally and in terms of production, from the dreampop, shoegaze, psychedelic-pop, and dark-folk genres/subgenres. Waves of drone-y, ambient, and fuzzy sounds unfurl as James Krivcheniaโs drums slightly lag, giving the tune a languorous, summery, stoner feel. As the track progresses, the band merge ethereal atmospheres and disparate rhythms โ Krivchenia segueing to jazzy patterns and playfully off-tempo accents โ rendering a delicate yet mercurial mix. Adrianne Lenkerโs voice sounds static-y, as if sheโs singing through a walkie-talkie. Her hypnotic melody and oblique lyrics point to the fluid nature of identity; how, during heightened moments, oneโs sense of separateness/selfness can recede or disappear, yielding an experience of transcendent and shimmering oneness. – John Amen
27. “Love Love Love”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
On โLove Love Love,โ the 18th track on Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, a drone-y atmosphere and trashy drums set the songโs tone. Buck Meekโs guitar is seemingly run through various effects, yielding noisy yet hauntingly melodic blasts that occasionally sound as if theyโre being produced by a modified trumpet or trombone. The overall mix is cacophonic yet integrated, lo-fi yet studied. โI already died / Iโm singing from the other side,โ Adrianne Lenker moans, her performance at once impenetrable and rivetingly intimate. Lyrically, she addresses the notion that at death the love that remained unexpressed during oneโs life is perhaps freed, dissipated, absorbed by the cosmos. Evoking a sense of hope and redemption, the song also radiates anxiety mixed with exhilaration. – John Amen
26. “From”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
On her solo album abysskiss, Adrianne Lenker gave us a peek behind the curtain of a very talented songwriter. Away from her main band, Lenker gave us a set of solitary, quiet, lo-fi acoustic cuts, which were still full of the knotty melodies and indelible lyricism we had already come to know her for. In fact, some of these artistic assets were actually magnified in the quietude. One of the highlights of that album was โfromโ, a song full of domestic imagery of lying on a floor and repeated snapshots of a particularly oblivious and curious puppy, and an absolutely lovely melody.
Updated for the full band on Big Thiefโs great U.F.O.F., the song retains its starkness while also blossoming into something a little darker and more fluid. The drums add a roiling, river-like undercurrent, and the song sways in and out from quiet to loud, echoing the unsteadiness of its lyrics. Lenkerโs melody is intact and brighter, slinking through its imagistic sojourn to its potent ultimate lyric: โBabyโs coming soon / Wonder if she’ll know / Where sheโs come fromโ. That last word rings out to the ether. The song is still a gentle organism, a quiet storm in the far away, but with her bandโs loving additions, it elevates the song from the shadow into the dewy light. – Jeremy J. Fisette
25. “Two Hands”
[Two Hands, 2019]
Big Thief described their fourth album, Two Hands, as an โearthโ complement to the more psychedelic U.F.O.F.. While there are stylistic and tonal overlaps between the two albums, Two Hands does indeed lean toward a more terrestrial ambience. With the title song, for example, a swampy haze, as opposed to a reverb-created spaciness, pervades the track, evoking a humid, steamy feel. Adrianne Lenkerโs vocal is draped atop Buck Meekโs hypnotic guitar and James Krivcheniaโs lulling drum part, the track growing slightly cacophonous while remaining melodic, sultry, entrancing. Lenkerโs voice is rife with existential longing while the instrumental mix swells and contracts, bringing to mind some mythic animal crawling through the subsoil. – John Amen
24. “Shark Smile”
[Capacity, 2017]
โShark Smileโ opens up with raucous guitar squalls and restless drums โ the kind of opening that foretells the dark and ominous, one that would fit on a track by The Walkmen. Yet 40 seconds in, the noise drops; steady guitar strumming and drums enter, incessant in their rhythms. The songโs tragic storyโan encounter with the seductive Evelyn, the subsequent road trip embarked at a reckless speed, the inevitable crashโis told by Lenker with great restraint. Her hushed vocals rise only at the songโs โwooโs, knowing anything more would distract from a song that carries the weight of a parable.
Yes, the squall returns and rises and falls throughout โShark Smileโ, like rain and wind battering a windshield, yet nothing truly deters the songโs focus. On future albums, Big Thief would push their ambitions to ever-rewarding ends, but five years ago, their chops as a more straightforward indie rock band were already among the strongest and most seductive around. โShe said woo / Baby, take meโโI would, too. – Carlo Thomas
23. “Century”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
One of Big Thiefโs most understatedly sexy songs, Lenker displays her gift for atmosphere and setting on this story of mysterious romance. โDog’s eyes in the headlights of the driveway / Cool autumn rain,โ she begins as a misty acoustic strum and pitter patter rhythm describe the drive through the light downpour. Lenker plays the waiting mistress, working herself up for passion; โBugs died on your windshield on the freeway / Wonder if you’ll be the same.โ When her partner does arrive, the connection between the two bodies is quietly electric, and Big Thief keep it sauntering as she suggests โthereโs something that I want you to know / turn on the shower.โ At that point, the two lovers lock eyes, Buck Meekโs voice drops in to play the partner and they sing to each other: โwe have the same power.โ Itโs the ultimate signal that the outside world no longer exists, all that matters is pleasure in the moment, and they have the power to give it to each other โ consequences be damned. – Rob Hakimian
22. “Open Desert”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
In its most glorious moments, U.F.O.F.โs shimmering soundscapes form the gestalt of a new Souvlaki: a nocturnal yet shimmering, brittle yet robust crystalline structure โ a dream caught in ice. No image encapsulates that better than Lenkerโs suggestion of lips kissing water, repeatedly appearing on the bandโs third album, but most poetically on โOpen Desertโ: โTo the poison image / Brave surrender / Kiss the waterโ. The song invokes a dreamlike stasis caught in everyday magic: white light leaking through the crack in a door, two differently coloured eyes, the reflection of a mirror. Lyrically, itโs one of Lenkerโs most elusive songs: the notable loss of teeth and blood suggests themes of ageing and mortality, the change from living room to waiting room as origin of the โwhite lightโ that comes through the door suggesting health struggles. The obscured meaning of the lyrics seems intentional, suggesting dream like states and emotional responses to single images dreamt or lived which.
The image of a child being drawn to the light shining from underneath a door, towards another unknown world, is a great metaphor for a quest of knowledge (something Lenker also dealt with recently in โSparrowโ), and the entity which โhas one green, one eye blueโ invokes a strange, transgressive light bringer the likes of Fanny & Alexanderโs Ismael, revealing itself through small moments of beauty after a great period of pain to deliver something transcendental โ the โthings we’re meant to understandโ. The songโs greatest trick is that it manages to encapsulate this feeling sonically, in the quiet, high ambient notes that arrive periodically, like morning light shining through a window, and transport the song โ and listener โ into celestial spheres. Thereโs something sacred here, something precious, which words canโt describe. – John Wohlmacher
21. “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
Big Thief created multiple versions of โDragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In Youโ, and those who have seen them live recently can attest to how awesome the HEAVY rendition is โ but the album recording will always be the definitive version. Recorded during the third Dragon New Warm Mountain session high in the Colorado Rockies, you can hear the surroundings seeping into the sound of the track, and Big Thief reciprocating with pure inspiration.
โThere’s a dragon in thะต phone line / Coughing up a mighty flame / With a tonguะต of silver / Calling out my oldest name,โ Lenker sings; the โdragonโ in question could be a lover, it could be nature, it could be music โ but I like to think itโs Big Thief the band (bassist Max Oleartchik has compared playing in the quartet to riding a dragon). Lenker sings her heartfelt belief out into the brisk, bright atmosphere of the song, which seems to mirror the elemental sweep of their mountainous surroundings.
Big Thief pay her back with a deceptively deft arrangement that features gliding acoustic, delicately sputtering drums, whispers of brass and the crackle of icicles just to top it off. โDragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In Youโ is transportive, spiritual, beautiful and the sound of one of the best bands in the world absolutely in their creative element. โItโs a little bit of magic.โ – Rob Hakimian
20. “Black Diamonds”
[Capacity, 2017]
One of the most complex and heartfelt love songs ever written, โBlack Diamondsโ is a gentle study of the physical and spiritual dance of falling in love. On the musical side, itโs a dialogue between the guitars of Meek and Lenker, which seem to cautiously explore the room between them, one taking the lead and the other responding, roles alternating, while the rhythm section provides steady heartbeats which, in significant moments, rise and drop. Itโs one of the bandโs most expressive guitar tracks in how it uses tender playing to simulate the exchange of two lovers.
Vocally, itโs one of Lenkerโs earliest masterpieces. Her assured voice is rich with longing, but never rising into loudness. Listening to a loverโs lead, she finds herself lost in the vast blackness of his eyes, but resolutely stands her ground. At the start of the song, she positions herself as a fragile and shy person (โSo much coming in / I do not know where to begin / I just follow the lead you’re pullingโ), but grows throughout the progression of the track to come out all the stronger. Early on she asks โShould I let you make a woman of me? / Should I let you take the mystery from me? / See the inside of my room at night?โ โ by the end, that transformed to โCome on, let me make a man outta you / I could gather you and you tell the truth / You could cry inside my armsโ.
The struggle of Lenker wrestling with societal roles and female stereotypes โ the disappearance in a male loverโs hurricane โ is thoughtful and illuminates her loving in a suggestively tender way. โBlack Diamondsโ characterizes the anxiety of what love reveals, the depth it can lead to, but also how it empowers us to be more than what other people see when they encounter our body. The eyes, all window of the soul, are black and deep and dark, sparkling manifold with the potential and excitement of laboured breath and quickened heartbeat. – John Wohlmacher
19. “Shoulders”
[Two Hands, 2019]
Two Hands, the โearth twinโ to the celestial U.F.O.F., is fairly often misunderstood โ as a simple rock album, as the groupโs most ramshackle record, as their most obvious. But leave it to the quartet to defy all expectations once the surface layers are removed, and it includes some of the bandโs most emotionally resonant work. โShouldersโ is one of the albumโs most alluring trojan horses: a grunge-infused ballad often interpreted as a call-to-arms against climate change, the song is characterized by dichotomies and double meaning. It starts out with a uplifting Neil-Youngโish riff, which disintegrates halfway through to give way to Lenker begging โPlease wake upโ.
In Big Thiefโs most recent work, thereโs repeated suggestions of drug usage and its destructive effect on people. The powerful chorus โThey found you in the morning / The blood was on your shoulders / They found you at the corner / Your head was doubled overโ contrasts the verses, which frame the subject Lenker addresses as a sort of healer, who in turn destroys themselves, as suggested by being unable to wake up.
What makes it all the more painful is the climax of the chorus โ and the entire song, when Lenkerโs voice rises to yelling โAnd the blood of the man / Who killed my mother with his hands / Is in me, it’s in me, in my veinsโ. Those lines are often attributed to characterize domestic violence or the symbolical motherhood of the planet Earth, but it also poignantly characterizes how self-destruction is something within our very identity, how we are looking for moments of quiet peace and healing relief in slumber-like states, only to realize it chokes us. That can be a violent partner, humanityโs disregard for its planet or our own inability to heal without intoxicating the pain away โ the most powerful lines are always the most universal. – John Wohlmacher
18. “Real Love”
[Masterpiece, 2016]
From the outside, Big Thief seem like a band of peaceful people spreading love and harmony, but those of us in the know are aware of just how much darkness and blood lurks in their music. That has existed since their earliest days, and โReal Loveโ, from their debut album, is one of their most violent โ thereโs no magic or mysticism here, just pure human jealousy and pig-headedness.
Told from the perspective of a child viewing their mother being abused by their father, the child has no other way to understand the smacks, split lips and tears other than to attribute them to โReal Loveโ. Of course, sung by the adult Lenker, the result is a lot more tumultuous and painful, and Big Thief roll out one of the loudest and most undulating rockers in their catalogue to fully express the depths of pain and regret that exist behind her voice and eyes. Despite the darkness, it remains one of their most powerful tributes to the power that โloveโ has to make humans do insensitive and irrational things. – Rob Hakimian
17. “Jenni”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
One year ago, I witnessed a ghost. In the middle of the night, awake and in thought, I heard a womanโs voice scream into my ear, twice.
I found myself cowering in a corner, shivering, in total disbelief. I have had spats with the paranomal before, witnessed occult and arcane manifestations, but this? Thereโs nothing to prepare you for the sheer disbelief and fear in witnessing something this sudden, which should not exist, according to what weโve been told. Because within this experience is a more than just the rationale there could be an afterlife: it means that our sense of security, no matter if spatial, mental or philosophical, is a ruse, and what rules natural sciences dictate to us โ that there is no such thing as a ghost โ is a lie!
โJenniโ captures this cosmic sense of anxiety and disintegration perfectly. Itโs unclear if Lenker was inspired by witnessing a spectral entity (given her origin story โ growing up in a cult and then living across the country in all kind of strange locales โ it might well be), but there is something unholy and intuitive to the track that oozes familiarity. The lyrics remain a fragmentary mantra (โToo hot to breatheโ โ โHer vacant eyeโ โ โJenni’s in my roomโ), which Lenker almost whispers, an eerie childlike disbelief that later on transforms into almost erotic observations of translucent skin and opening portals, materializing a sense of occult sisterhood. A palpable sense of violence and distress permeates the lyrics and while the meaning remains obscure, itโs certain Jenni is not at rest. Small moments of sonics, feedback and effects cut through the structure of the song, announcing a presence beyond that of the band.
At times it seems like the sรฉance that marks the cataclysmic event of John Lennonโs โCry Baby Cryโ. And then โJenniโ all of a sudden climaxes in a single repeated guitar note, played over and over, finally exploding into an eerie, monstrous yelping during the last chorus. It could be the band members yelling, it could be guitar effects, or it could be Jenni herself, announcing herself. She could reveal herself to you when you least expect it. She could be behind you right now, a memory or an echo of something we all know exists, yet tell ourselves is just a story. – John Wohlmacher
16. “Time Escaping”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
One of the most appealing elements of DNWMIBIY is the sense of fun. โTime Escapingโ, the album’s second track, envelopes listeners with hollow drums, chirping synths, and enchanting flute. โTo hit the stage and blush wild, laughingly / Crush the rage and rush time tappingly,โ go the first two lines, with Lenker delivering them in a slow yet bouncing cadence. In their mystery, Lenker gets at the childhood fascination of realizing the connection of everything.
As we grow older, it’s easy to let cynicism take hold, to let our experiences codify our worldviews. Yet โTime Escapingโ resists this impulse; the song rolls along with Lenker picking up observations and putting them in her pockets like dandelions or ladybugs. โTime Escapingโ reminds listeners that discovery is part of what makes life worth living. And for Big Thief, their vehicle for discovery has never been so fully realizedโitโs music. Itโs music. – Carlo Thomas
15. “Change”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
The opening track to Big Thiefโs latest album sets a mood of old-timey folk, reminiscent of Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Marry and other such acts. While the New York City outfit completely pulls off this style and Adrianne Lenkerโs vocals have the timbre of a 60s great, there is more depth to “Change” than just an inviting sound.
The song lyrics describe transformation, inconspicuously cueing up what the rest of the album is going to be like โ ever-changing and evolving. Lenker also ponders existence, emotions, static and motion, the importance of life, but she does it ever so weightlessly and courageously. – Aleksandr Smirnov
14. “Mythological Beauty”
[Capacity, 2017]
Compassion. โMythological Beautyโ is the distillation thereof. Over a steady stomping beat and dreamy folk backing, Adrianne Lenker tells the tale of her mother becoming impregnated at 17 (โSeventeen, you took his cum / And you gave birth to your first lifeโ) and giving the baby up for adoption because she was too young to take on the responsibility. โI have an older brother I donโt know, he could be anywhere,โ Lenker reflects โ with wonder, rather than judgement.
Despite the harrowing past, her mother still went on and had Adrianne and her sister โ only for the child Adrianne to have a serious accident while playing in the garden. โYou held me in the backseat with a dishrag / Soaking up blood with your eye / I was just five and you were 27 / Praying โplease donโt let my baby dieโ,โ Lenker sings, her voice reaching a pitch that reflects the fraughtness of the moment. We travel back in time with the singer as she melds into her motherโs mindset and fully understands the pressure and horror, accepting it with loving clarity.
Despite telling these heavy histories, and her mother being โall caught up insideโ, Big Thief let us know that Adrianneโs mother has to this day lived her life generously, honestly, and lovingly: no wonder sheโs the โMythological Beautyโ. – Rob Hakimian
13. “Little Things”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
When โLittle Thingsโ dropped in summer 2021, it felt at once warm and a little painful. Lenkerโs acoustic guitar strums glisten while Meekโs electric guitar cuts offer an element of distortion, like when you stand up too fast and suddenly feel a bit dizzy. Or, in keeping with the songโs theme, when you lose your breath at the sight of your love.
โLittle Thingsโ captures and condenses this particular spectrum of emotions brought on by love. Lenkerโs lyrics offer adoration for her love: โNew York City is a crowded place / I still lose sight of every other face.โ Yet her emotions flip upside down just a few seconds later: โMaybe I’m a little obsessed / Maybe you do use me.โ After Lenkerโs voice falls awayโโWhere are you?โ goes the final lineโthe song rolls on, incessant on its glistening tenderness. On an album where every song is a highlight, โLittle Thingsโ derives its power from vulnerability, from knowing that nothing is certain but giving your best shot anyways. – Carlo Thomas
12. “Spud Infinity”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
Potatoes โ they’re versatile โ you can cook them fried, mashed, or scalloped (to name a few). But who knew you could make a damn bop about one. Big Thief can do more than pull at your heartstrings; they can pull you into the corral for a rootin’ tootin’ good time, that’s for sure. These folk-country-bluegrass cosmologists have offered a few foot-stompers throughout their quickly growing discography, but none will get you going like “Spud Infinity”. A fan favorite long before its official studio release, “Spud Infinity” is a communal ditty โ twangy but deeply felt bluegrass with a spirit to break free. Sure, some of the lyrics are absurd, but its message of accepting yourself or “the alien you’ve rejected in your own heart” will have a few tears falling down and into your dusty cowboy boot as you two-step alongside other outsiders. – Kyle Kohner
11. “Forgotten Eyes”
[Two Hands, 2019]
Big Thief explore dark themes in a lot of their songs, but โForgotten Eyesโ is so loving that itโs almost deserving of a humanitarian award. No, it doesnโt have any โWe Are the Worldโ-level cheesiness, but the chorus of โEverybody needs a home and deserves protectionโ almost makes me blush. Itโs woven into an exploration of the communal as corporeal: descriptions of our โcollective armโ; โthe cheek with which we smileโ. Ultimately, Adrianneโs observations on โForgotten Eyesโ are an appeal to kindness: โForgotten tongue is the language of love,โ she concludes. No doubt. – Ethan Reis
10. “Paul”
[Masterpiece, 2016]
For a band that has no bad songs, itโs not easy to agree on their best work. But โPaulโ is probably the most popular Big Thief song, and not for nothing: its late-nite, almost 50s pop vibe is as comforting as anything theyโve done. If the chorus sounds like something a new band would save for the centerpiece of their debut album, itโs probably because thatโs exactly what it is – Iโve seen it turn a roomโs Covid-anxious crowd into smiling singers. Despite its near cheat-code level of accessibility, I donโt see how it can be left out of a discussion of their greatest achievements thus far. – Ethan Reis
9. “UFOF”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
With their third album, Big Thief fully embrace their Appalachian/Americana leanings while, on the production end, continuing to explore evocative textures and ambient instrumentation. With the title track, โUFOFโ, the band find a fertile balance between psychedelic atmospherics, lullingly transportive rhythms, and classic folk underpinnings (acoustic guitars, shuffling drum beat, contained but ear-catching bass part). Adrianne Lenkerโs languorous voice, sensual melody, and poetically free-flowing lyrics (about saying goodbye to her โUFO friendโ) are bolstered by understated yet emotionally complex instrumental interplays, dynamics that are seminally honed on Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. – John Amen
8. “Mary”
[Capacity, 2017]
As a lyricist, Adrianne Lenker can be direct, mysterious, bloodthirsty and romantic, but sheโs never been as childishly whimsical as she is on โMaryโ. The luminous torch song features one of her most lucid visions of love ever. It may be full of unusual, incomprehensible metaphors, but when listening to โMaryโ we seem to understand every word she says; it expresses a dizzying love thatโs truly beyond words and is more about visceral happiness. When Big Thief play โMaryโ live, you can hear a whole audience chant along to the pagan poetry, living on every word; โOh and, heavens, when you looked at me / Your eyes were like machinery / Your hands were making artifacts in the corner of my mind.โ
On record, the band provide a wan soundscape of piano chords and synths echoing beneath her tumbling words like lights reflecting off a lake, expressing the infinitude of feeling โ the desperation for the moment to last forever. Of course, no passion is eternal, and thereโs a pang of pain amidst the beauty as Lenker envisions the future; โAnd I know that someday soon I’ll see you / But now you’re out of sight / And you’ll kiss me like you used to in the January nightโ. Lenker wants to dwell in this moment alongside her lover for as long as she can, and with this little bit of musical magic she’s preserved it forever. – Rob Hakimian
7. “Masterpiece”
[Masterpiece, 2016]
Itโs probably a good thing that you canโt smell songs (yet), but if youโve been to any hole-in-the-wall bar (like, ever), then you can relate to Adrienneโs memorable appeal on โMasterpieceโ: โThis place smells like piss and beer / Can you get me outta here?โ Much like โChangeโ would five years later, โMasterpieceโ describes a kind of loverโs dรฉjร vu: โShe looked a lot like meโ, and โShe looks a lot like youโ – these visions conclude in a Lucinda Williams-like observation: โThereโs only so much lettinโ go you can ask someone to doโ. When you pair this poetry with a catchy melody and beautiful harmonies, itโs no wonder that โMasterpieceโ became a title-track and a Big Thief classic. – Ethan Reis
6. “Orange”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
On U.F.O.F., an album that evokes the otherworldly at almost every turn, โOrangeโ lies nestled halfway through the tracklist. The song consists of Lenkerโs guitar and her words, delivered with a mourning listeners can feel in their guts. โShe tells me to close and count to ten,โ Lenker sings, a lines that implies both trust and betrayal. On โOrange,โ Lenker recognizes that a loverโs disappearance can leave one at a loss for answers and, perhaps more consequential, a desire to rewrite the past (โCan I close and open once again?โ)
On โOrange,โ Lenkerโs songwriting isnโt much different from the rest of her work. She blends a deeply personal perspective with poetic imagery โHound dogs crowing at the stars above / Pigeons fall like snowflakes at the border.โ Yet rarely are the weight of her wordsโher pain, her bewilderment at where sheโs found herselfโso palatable. โOrangeโ serves as a reminder that no matter the sonic palette wielded, Lenkerโs words are often the true source of Big Thiefโs power. – Carlo Thomas
5. “Sparrow”
[Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022]
Adrianne Lenker has long excelled at making the most simple things feel devastating, the most intimate of statements feel grand. โSparrowโ achieves both. Blending a story of deep personal pain with the story of Adam and Eve, in each given moment youโre not certain where to turn, where exactly sheโs leading. With a grave, cyclical delivery, Lenker gradually layers her vocals, creating a devastating maw of loss and hopes dashed, letting the drama ramp up with. โshe has the poison inside her / she talks to snakes, and they guide her,โ she sings in a way that somehow manages to be truly eerie, saddening, and ridiculously catchy all at once. Itโs impossible not to feel all; the loss of innocence, men’s ever-encroaching desire for control over womenโs bodies. Itโs a spare song that says more than meets the ear. In other words, itโs primal, essential Big Thief. – Chase McMullen
4. “Cattails”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
Written by Lenker on an inspired morning at the rural Bear Creek studio in Washington, surrounded by pine trees, “Cattails” is a song that captures the wonder of nature and being alive in all its diverse glory. The recording of the song happened almost instantaneously as it was written, Dom Monks setting up microphones around the songwriter as she fumbled through the tripping words, Krivchenia drumming along, until she nailed it. The final version maintains that organic quality; you can feel a fresh breeze in your hair as you listen, the titular reeds swaying along to the 12-string guitar in your mind’s eye.
Lyrically, it finds Lenker circling the many mundane and mystical wonders of existence and ageing, shifting from the supernatural (“meteor shower at the motel”) to the characterful (“middle of the river in your lawn chair”), wrapping it all up with the perfectly-pitched pleasure-pain hook “you don’t even know why when you cry”. Everything about “Cattails” works so perfectly in unison, Lenker’s words tumbling across the irrepressible arrangement, that it builds up a ball of emotional energy. By the time of the resounding finale, with hiccupping piano keys dancing just beneath the sparkling surface, you can’t help but feel uplifted to a place of spiritual happiness at simply being alive. – Rob Hakimian
3. “Contact”
[U.F.O.F., 2019]
Itโs fascinating to watch Adriane Lenker being silent. In interviews, she lets her gaze wander, takes long breaks to collect herself before a response, is distracted by brief details in the room. She calls this her โpsychedelic thinkingโ, wandering through ideas and experiences. Itโs, unsurprisingly, very cancer. โContactโ is meant to catch this strange state, which Lenker describes as follows: โItโs about my own story about swirling around in this kind of numb state, which is something that Iโve battled with since I was a kid. Like, youโre under water and youโre not even aware that youโre under water for a while, and then suddenly you realize you canโt hear or see or feel anything. You can kind of see the light at the surface and then suddenly youโre like, โWait no, no, no, I canโt slip away. I need to feel. I need to be alive. I need to be connected.โ
It envelops many of Lenkerโs favourite themes โ water, which is liberating but also scary; motherhood, which is both nurturing (โWrap me in silk / I want to drink your milkโ) but also sinister (โShe gives me gills / Helps me forgive the pillsโ); dreams as escape from our physical from but also prison of our minds. All this spirals, quietly, in a deeply mysterious atmosphere, before all of a sudden, the song freezes for one seconds, and the screaming starts. Over and over again, Lenker screams, at the top of her lungs, over a solemn Grunge riff. Itโs an intensely powerful experience to hear the song for the first time, be drawn in by the marine images of fishes, gills and water, only to be reminded of the very real and human body. Lenker describes it as that moment when we break out from that slipping away, that sinking, breaking through the surface, โfeeling everythingโ. Itโs a wake-up siren, right at the beginning, announcing U.F.O.F. and Big Thief with an explosion of pure, unbridled emotion. – John Wohlmacher
2. “Simulation Swarm”
There really are not very many songs that emotionally cut very deep and yet are very catchy on the surface. On “Simulation Swarm”, Lenker delivers what seems to be a futurist portrayal of life in digital world (possibly a simulation) and how alienation devolves into aggression, which creates only one desire โ to retreat. Then it diverts into a meditation on personal loss and how relationships must be mended before they are buried forever. There is hope, there is a river of light and there is music. I leave you with this one thought from “Simulation Swarm” that does not even need the context to be understood and felt by most anyone: โI’d fly to you tomorrow, I’m not fighting in this war / I wanna drop my arms and take your arms / And walk you to the shore.โ – Aleksandr Smirnov
1. “Not”
[Two Hands, 2019]
Barebones rock and roll has always been an essential thread woven into Big Thief’s magical musical cloak of disheveled, raw beauty. Never have they displayed this more viscerally than through “Not”, arguably the pinnacle of Two Hands.
A noise rocker epic of pure emotional release, “Not” is undeniably the band’s loudest moment to date. With a slow, goosebump-inducing folk-rock crawl moving the track’s first two minutes forward, Lenker gradually smolders into a fiery ball ready to combust. And when she does, listeners are overcome with the realization this is one of the band’s defining moments, both on the grounds of emotion and musicality, which is truly one and the same for Big Thief. Amidst a shroud of noise catalyzed by pummeling drums and churning guitar distortion, Lenker reckons with a painful past, wailing while repainting tiny but profound mementos that define this agony. Though she renders them non-existent, Lenker briefly gives life to these intimate images of bleeding blood, warm dew, and spine tattoos by sheer recognition. But she is quick to expel them from memory with the extinguishing power of her anguished scowl. – Kyle Kohner
Listen to a playlist of our top 30 Big Thief songs on Spotify
