Big Thief - Double Infinity
2025 • 4AD • INDIE / FOLK
89/100
Big Thief has always been an elusive band, and I mean that in the best way possible. They consistently find a way to explore new sonic frontiers while never losing that unique, recognizable quality that makes them undeniably them. With their latest record, Double Infinity, they double down on this. The album is an expansive work that, despite its modest nine-song tracklist, runs for nearly 45 minutes—not a brief album by any means.
The dominant feeling throughout is a sense of warmth and familiarity. The songs are bound together by recurring themes of togetherness, uncertainty, and a pervasive, gentle love. As usual, the lyrics are strikingly visual, painting vivid pictures that leap out of the speakers. The opener, “Incomprehensible,” tells a vibrant story from Adrianne Lenker's childhood, a reminder of the simple joy that feels so good to remember in today’s world. The lines, "My mother and my grandma, my great-grandmother too / Wrinkle like the river, sweeten like the dew / And as silver as the rainbow scales that shimmer purple blue / How can beauty that is living be anything but true?" highlight this beautiful imagery. “All Night All Day” is a visceral, highly erotic song about love, sex, and everything in between. These are two slides of the same coin, but both songs explore that relationship of shared love in different ways.
The album's unique sound comes directly from its creation. The band recorded and performed the songs together, live as one collective, at the legendary Power Station, a studio where Bruce Springsteen once laid down his tracks. There, the band built on each other's takes in a truly collective spirit, and you can hear the instruments layering together in the final mix. This concerted songwriting process is what truly brings the album to life.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you hope for a behind-the-scenes documentary twenty years from now. There is a palpable craftsmanship here that reminds me of Brian Wilson's obsession with the grandiose recording process. However, while Wilson fixated on it, Lenker, Buck, and James melted into it—a full thirteen musicians working together for nine hours a day to create a holistic recording experience. It’s a tall task to make the creative input as clear as the output, and for the most part, Big Thief succeeds.
Looking back at their previous work, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You brought a simplified bluegrass and folk sound. Masterpiece was raw and emotional. Two Hands and U.F.O.F. featured songwriting experimentation. Double Infinity feels like a culmination of this collective reflection. It features elements of all their past works, reinvented into something new.
And so we return to Big Thief's elusiveness—the very quality that makes them so special. They are a band constantly in motion, yet always holding on to their core identity. It might sound cliché, but this album is an embodiment of life itself, filled with all the big and small things we should appreciate. And though it's often hard to step back and do that, for a brief moment, I was happy I could.
NBA COMP: BILL WALTON
Don’t let the hippie facade fool you, this is a dominant artist who rarely misses. While Walton was plagued with injuries, Lenker & co.’s run keeps going.
