Album of the Week: Big Thief's "Two Hands"
By Patrick McKenzie
The cover art of U.F.O.F., Big Thief’s first album of 2019, presents the four band members lounging on a patch of grass in what appears to be a lush forest clearing or path. They are all facing the camera, but not necessarily posing for it. They’re wearing eclectic outfits with mismatched colours; lead singer and guitarist Adrianne Lenker in a red hood, guitarist and backing vocalist Buck Meek in a subdued navy shirt, drummer James Krivchenia in a bright orange T-shirt, and bassist Max Oleartchik barefoot and with a vibrant purple silk top. They’re close, almost on top of each other. Resigned yet seemingly comfortable – both Lenker and Krivchenia are looking away from the lens altogether. Much like the music they make, Big Thief are unafraid of appearing too melancholic or forlorn, rather, their trademark understated sound is a testament to the musical purity present when a band feels like a family.
If U.F.O.F. is a package of intimacy in all its warmth and tenderness, then Two Hands is its scrappier, more down-to-earth sibling; with emotional depth, rough edges, and scratchy vocal cords to boot. On this album’s cover, the perspective has been brought even closer. All band members remain present, Lenker and Krivchenia are again coyly looking away, but this time they radiate an energy more aligned with bare-bones honesty than cool platonic communion. In the music itself this manifests as a special brand of lo-fi, solidified more by musicianship and aesthetic vision than a lack of recording technology or necessity. Indeed, this album was recorded deep in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas at the famed Sonic Ranch studio; befitting of the record’s vast and empty atmosphere, yet hardly to being recorded almost entirely live without overdubs – vocal takes and all. This persistence to interpret the DIY prescription as a shining mark of style makes Two Hands an achievement, both towards being uncompromisingly real and as one successive masterwork following just after another.
In a recent Reddit AMA Lenker, when asked about how the band has taken on newfound media attention and a growing fanbase, responded with something of a guiding ethos that seems fitting to describe the group as a whole:
“…we just want to focus on making records, creating peaceful gatherings via shows, and expanding our consciousness collectively and individually.”
It’s clear to see just how much she meant these words on ‘Not’, both the album’s lead single and its longest song. Lenker’s guttural vocals come in almost straight away, casting out phrase after phrase as if trying to describe an unknown indescribable feeling that is doubtlessly overwhelming her: “Not what you really wanted/Nor the mess in your purse/Nor the bed that is haunted/With the blanket of thirst”. Meanwhile, Meek’s guitar swirls and sings in the background, denoting an airy abyss somehow equal parts terrifying and comforting. When performing the song on Colbert just over a week ago, the band chose to face more towards each other than the audience; drawing out a vibe of candid desperation, hunching over their respective instruments, and coating the track’s climactic guitar solo in grunge-inspired layers of distortion and feedback.
If Big Thief can make their often log cabin-sized sound fill a TV studio, then they’re certain to flourish in the familiar territory of the microcosmic. Songs like ‘Shoulders’ and ‘Replaced’ begin with Krivchenia counting in the rest of the group or errant guitar strumming from Meek followed by a plodding drum beat and slow instrumental fade-in. These are light but meaningful touches, as are the other hanging introductions or distant echoes at the end of almost every song; imparting a feeling of being situated in the same space as the band. It’s these perfect imperfections that affirm Lenker’s poetic voice, allowing her ethereal sound to waver and dance around the rest of the band’s stripped-back and often-gritty instrumentation. This dichotomy eventually finds perfect balance in the album’s title track, which opens jubilantly with shuffling maracas and noodling electric guitar arpeggios. Oleartchik’s bass line comes through with smooth clarity, acting as a tonal counterpart to Lenker’s shaky yet sincere lyrics about mystery and uncertainty in a relationship: “And the more that we try/To figure through the answers/To repeat ourselves/To deny, deny”.
Having played almost 700 shows between 2016 and 2018 and planning tours nearly a year in advance, Two Hands sees Big Thief taking a step back, hitting a beautiful stride in the process. Saccharine in the best of ways, ’Forgotten Eyes’ – the album’s second single – epitomises this imminent approach most effectively. Lenker’s lyrics paint a relaxed albeit pained and authoritative vignette of the importance of communal support and unconditional love amid real world crises such as the opioid epidemic, while the rest of the band’s synergy proves arresting – drawing out every tiny and affecting moment.