Big Thief Discovers Their Purest Form In ‘Double Infinity’
Photo via Big Thief.
With tender, outstretched hands, Big Thief beckons us into their cosmic sixth album, Double Infinity, a sojourn that guarantees to leave an indelible imprint. Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia pressed into the grooves left behind by the parting of their longtime bassist, Max Oleartchik. What bubbled to the surface was a nine-track album that demonstrates a sincere outpour of the group’s personal and collective journeys as a new trio.
Exploring the dichotomy of love and loss, this contemplative project creates a language that surrounds how both can coexist in harmony and tension, blossoming into a rich, sonic symphony that feels one in a million. Swallowing you whole with gentle truths paired with ethereal instrumentals that Big Thief is known for masterfully weaving together, Double Infinity is a kind invitation to look directly into the mirror and lean into the nuances of being alive.
Bookends “Incomprehensible” and “Grandmother” sharpen the eyes on the beauty of the human body and how far we extend outside of ourselves. Lenker softens her edges in the face of societal expectations on female aging in “Incomprehensible”: “The message spirals, ‘Don’t get saggy, don’t get gray’ / But the soft and lovely silvers are now falling on my shoulders.” There’s a palpable power in not only acknowledging the beauty of getting older but waving it in the air with grace. Against windchiming synths and brisk drum hits, she falls deeper into its embrace: “How can beauty that is living be anything but true? / So let gravity be my sculptor / Let the wind do my hair.”
“Grandmother” captures a similar essence of proof of life, a track that evokes the sensation of a chest rising and falling. Written from scratch solely by the trio, the group brought on friend and musician, Laraaji, for a special layer of spontaneous vocals that only happens once. His meandering hums melt into the song to create something otherworldly as Lenker swims in an epiphany.“We are made of love / We are also made of pain,” she initially points out before a shift in perspective dawns on her on the drive home: “I saw sun through the clouds / I saw love through the pain.”
Amidst it all, the inward posture of the group funnels into the outward act of creating music together, and the refrain, “Gonna turn it all into rock and roll,” deserves to be put on a t-shirt. “This song comforts me and reminds me that we have the power to transform energy and reclaim disconnected or alienated parts of ourselves. There’s a world worth living for, a love bigger than everything that is always there,” Lenker writes in an Instagram post.
Photo via Big Thief.
“Words” is tossing and turning in your sleep, a restless night of mulling over the things you try to make sense of. “Words are tired and tense / Words don’t make sense,” she croons over garbling guitar chords. Lenker lunges and grasps for something that transcends language, only to be met with more grappling.
Hearty tracks like “No Fear” and “Happy With You” act as rejuvenating rest stops, both rattling with repetition that comes as is. At nearly seven minutes, “No Fear” begins with a tempo that is in no rush, and deep bass lines that lure you into a hypnotic serenade. “Thеre is no fear, mind so clear, mind so free / Thеre is no time, round like a lime, destiny,” Lenker’s voice looms into the void like a meditative incantation. In “Happy With You,” there is no need for flowery language or rationalizing feelings—you feel it how it is. “Happy with you, happy with you,” she reiterates, the refrain melting into itself until it becomes almost indecipherable. “Why do I need to explain myself?” she interjects in the middle of the track.
An ode for something beyond soulmates bleeds all over “Los Angeles.” It introduces itself with sound bites of laughter from the group, which takes the shape of crackling embers warming up the track like cold palms over a campfire. It’s an ink-stained love letter to kindred spirits that share knowing glances and a connection that runs deeper than friendship—something that is found at the molecular level. “Two years feels like forever / But I know you without looking / You call, we come together / Even without speaking,” Lenker sings over gritty acoustics, proving there is understanding within the incomprehensible.
Although the album’s namesake track, “Double Infinity,” comes in at the halfway point, it feels like a culmination of the band’s blood, sweat, and tears. With the baseline of anthemic folk, the trio never fails to inject the pure, immovable love they have for one another into their music. A testament to the group’s longevity and friendship, the track’s lyrics embrace all of their “ands” without hesitation: “What’s been lost and what lies waiting,” “What is forming, what is fading,” and “I echo and I seek to win / Mourning and celebrating.” There’s nothing like love that endures it all, and Big Thief pens the feeling with ease.
At its core, Big Thief is a “stretchy entity that is always becoming.” Double Infinity magnifies an essence of unflinching love amidst the unknown, and what came out of the creative process was something that feels undiluted, honest, and a space of retreat. They do it wholeheartedly for the love of music, and those fingerprints are all over this one.
