On June 3rd,Big Thiefofficially announced the release of their sixth studiomusicalbum. Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia are soldiering forward without their long-time bass player, and providing indie rock lovers with a fresh new record to spin.
In the three years following the release of the Grammy-nominated albumDragon In The New Warm Mountain, I Believe In You,the members of Big Thief have not been kicking their feet up and taking it easy. The band put out their scream-along hit “Vampire Empire,” toured for their album, and put out solo projects. Adrianne Lenker released her raw, stripped-back albumBright Future, Buck Meek released his inquisitive alternative country albumHaunted Mountain, and James Krevchenia recently released his intricate electronic albumPerforming Belief.
As a band, they released the EPPassional Relationsto raise money to aid in California’s wildfire relief. After this period of investing in their solo projects and occasionally collaborating on small releases, Big Thief was finally ready to return to the studio with fresh ideas.
Everything We Know About Double Infinity So Far
Releasing To Close Out The Summer
As the days grow shorter and the leaves begin to fall from the trees,Big Thief’s new album will play out the last warm days of summer.Double Infinityis set torelease on September 5th. The New York City group went back to their roots for this album and recorded it at the iconic New York City Power Station in Hell’s Kitchen.
The trio entrusted Dom Monks with the production, mixing, and engineering of this album. Monks has collaborated with Big Thief for years, as recently as 2023 with the single “Vampire Empire,” and as distantly as the 2019 albumU.F.O.F. The recording process was lengthy,spanning three weeks of daily nine-hour recording sessions. In these sessions, the band recorded their tracks simultaneously, creating melodies, rhythms, and soundscapes that are in communication with each other in a way that only live improvisation can provide.
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How Could I Have Known
This nine-track album is being released on the record label 4ADand boasts an impressive community of talented collaborators. The cover image, a lime surrounded by rinds arranged like the rings of eyes that surround a biblical angel, is encircled in stark darkness.
A New Sound For Big Thief
Big Thief is known for their alternative indie rock that borrows inspiration from a wide breadth of genres.Folk, country, Americana, and bluegrass elementshave intermingled in all of Big Thief’s previous work, but the sound achieved on “Incomprehensible” introduces flavors that are entirely new. On this track, theinfluence of dream pop and shoegazeis apparent in the song’s ambient drones and twinkling bell ear candy.
The song’s lyrics reflect on the duality found in the passage of time.We are both shrouded in insignificance and also consumed with sentimentality.
The vibrato added to the dreamy reverbed guitar infuses the blues with the sounds of shoegaze to create a tone that is fresh. The song’s lyrics reflect onthe duality found in the passage of time.We are both shrouded in insignificance and also consumed with sentimentality. The lyric “In two days, it’s my birthday, and I’ll be 33 / That doesn’t really matter next to eternity” captures the significance we are able to find in milestones that are a mere fraction of a drop in the bucket that is all time.
In this song,Adrianne Lenker accepts and embraces the miracle of aging. It can be difficult for anyone to not only accept that youth is fleeting, but welcome the beauty of growing older with open arms. Lenker bravely faces a new phase of life while welcoming the listener to marvel at the promise of their own future.
This Will Be The Band’s First Album As A Trio
Max Oleartchik Leaves Big Thief’s Line-Up
Big Thief’s line-up suffered a significant loss in the summer of 2024 whenMax Oleartchik parted ways with the group. Oleartchik played bass in Big Thief for a year short of a decade and performed on every studio album the band has released thus far.
In a statement the band posted to their Instagram, the members wrote “[t]his change was made for interpersonal reasons with mutual respect in our hearts.“It is unclear what interpersonal issues the collaborators encountered, but many speculate that the issues may have been related to political disagreements regarding the members' stances on the Israel’s longstanding conduct in Gaza.
In 2022, Big Thief canceled two shows in Israel after fans criticized their decision to visit the country. Adrianne Lenker shared withThe New York Timesthat this decision created a deep tension that the band was unsure they could navigate.Lenker says thatit took the influence of “people who are smarter” than the musicians to resolve the issue internally. In the three years since this decision, violence in the region has skyrocketed, and the circumstances of Palestinian citizens have become more dire.
For Max Oleartchik, the issue is close to home. He was born and raised in Israel and still calls the country home. Adrianne Lenker, on the other hand, is very vocal about her support for the people of Palestine. She released an EPi won’t let go of your handto raise money for The Haven Fund, which evacuates students in Gaza and aids them in securing visas for new universities.
Although Lenker expressed in the past that the band nearly broke up in 2022 because of tensions related to the cancellation of the Israel shows,there is currently no way of knowing if this is the issue that caused Oleartchik’s departure. Regardless,Big Thiefis moving ahead as a trio, withDouble Infinityset to arrive in just a few months' time.
