Big Thief’s latest album since 2022’s sprawling indie-folk magnum opus Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, makes no attempt to replicate that expansive approach. Instead, Double Infinity emerges as their most sonically and compositionally cohesive work yet.
The album marks ten years since Big Thief’s formation in 2015, a timeline that feels surprisingly brief given their impact on the indie-folk landscape. The official trio of Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia has become authentic torchbearers, using folk’s natural sound to maximize their songwriting across six studio records. Double Infinity marks their first release since bassist Max Oleartchik’s departure in July 2024. Rather than simply replacing him, the band embraced collaboration, recording at New York’s Power Station with ten additional musicians to create what feels like a living conversation rather than a calculated arrangement.
I got into Big Thief through U.F.O.F.– folk excellence at its best. It was spontaneous yet precise, ethereal yet grounded, with instrumentation so tangible yet otherworldly. This album maximises the dichotomy found in that material and stretches it to its limit. It has a consistent sound and attitude: somewhat psychedelic and flowing, unexpected, yet the album’s sections of lengthened jamming feel perfectly inevitable. That contradiction often works, though not as consistently as their other work – it really depends on your patience for their vision. At 43 minutes across nine tracks, it asks you to settle in. The songs are lyrically simple in structure, often featuring repeated mantras and phrases, happy to jam over chord structures while the instrumentation whirls and evolves around you.
The production is easily the album’s strongest part. It features more overdubbing of textures and vocals than ever, with all sorts of lush ambient textures present – some of which I couldn’t begin to name. Yet they sound fantastic, gel together harmoniously, and come in and out so loosely and naturally it feels like a conversation. There are few obvious climaxes; the album’s catharsis comes from letting the songs envelop you with emotion over time.
Normally, I wouldn’t discuss a Big Thief album without bringing up Adrianne Lenker first – she is one of my favourite lyricists and vocalists currently working. Her 2020 solo album songs blew up on social media, perhaps due to it being released during lockdown, but more likely because Lenker’s ability to vocalise emotions is near-unmatched. On Double Infinity, though, it may be the first Big Thief release where Lenker’s voice and writing aren’t my favourite thing. It’s far from mediocre – she still proves to be one of the best – but lyrically, I found myself less surrendered this time. Perhaps that’s because her other writing is normally so gut-wrenchingly real or candidly humorous. Here, the writing is intentionally vague, serving the album’s goal of creating a wall of sound and emotion rather than pinpoint moments. This just means I wasn’t able to connect quite like their other releases – the struggle of being too good at their jobs.
Incomprehensible opens the album and sets the tone wonderfully. The opening drone is like an invitation to the swirling world of warmth and love that the album presents. Lenker’s lyrics, about accepting age and recognising that personal feelings don’t matter in the scheme of eternity, feels both self-assuring and freeing. The guitars on this track are wonderfully warm, textured with distortion that is pleasantly lo-fi and nostalgic.
Words follows with a wonderful energy, which I wish the rest of the album maintained. Its sprawling percussion – drum kits, bongos, bells – all groove in perfect synchronicity, creating a wall of sound that perfectly mirrors Lenker’s lyrics on the density and complexity of the words we use to express ourselves, again feeding into a confessional vibe that invites self-acceptance. How Could I Have Known is another favourite. Multi-layered vocals from Buck Meek and Lenker layer the stereo field to create an almost choral effect. This allows the lyrics of overcoming loneliness to feel fully realised.
I didn’t connect with the rest of the album as much. No Fear and Happy With You lean into meditative repetition that, while clearly intentional and never sounding incomplete or clumsy, sometimes misses that sticky hook or cathartic moment to make me return immediately. This meditative direction works in concept, but it doesn’t always land emotionally.
Overall, Double Infinity features Big Thief’s most impressively consistent and dense production and arrangements to date. It includes tracks that fit perfectly in their growing collection of emotionally resonant, life-affirming songs that showcase the beauty in complicated feelings. If you aren’t already aware of the band, I wouldn’t recommend this as your entry point – I’d turn to U.F.O.F. or Capacity, which feature more direct songwriting. If you’re a fan, however, there’s a lot to enjoy here. It’s the type of album I’ll return to from front to back in its meditative entirety, discovering new layers each time. I’d recommend giving this a listen on a system or headphones that has a wide soundstage – give your local Richer Sounds a call to discuss the best deals on Hi-fi.
Author: Elliot, Holborn Store
