Emma Vernon reviews Big Thief’s latest album
I saw Brooklyn-based quartet Big Thief this summer at Green Man festival. The event is set in the midst of the Brecon Beacons, meaning it is framed by a border of forests and mountains, hidden away down winding Welsh lanes that were particularly hard to drive down. There couldn’t have been a better backdrop to watch Big Thief, a band so rooted in the wilderness. Big Thief
The album is attempting to find a safe space to exist; so many of the lyrics are concerned with the human desire for safety and consolation
The album seems to outline a journey into finding security and comfort; expressed with the quartet’s unadulterated creativity, it makes for an album that is aware, poignant, and intelligent. The band is able to evoke a stillness that is particularly relevant in a world that has this year seemed even more chaotic than usual. Big Thief
The album is distinctly Big Thief in its nature, featuring Lenker’s raw vocals and ambiguous lyrics that are left open to interpretation. As most great lyrics are, it’s a presence that is at once lonely and crowded, exposed, and warm. The album is attempting to find a safe space to exist; so many of the lyrics are concerned with the concept of home and the very human desire for safety and consolation. The band has all the embedded empathy of Kevin Morby and all the nostalgia of Bon Iver. In ‘Forgotten Eyes’, Lenker desperately sings “Everybody needs a home and deserves protection”, in ‘The Toy’ she mentions a “charcoal womb’, and in the album’s titular track ‘Two Hands’ there is discussion of “places you had been I needed”. These songs are attempting to explore what is tender and where is safe.
Expressed with the quartet’s unadulterated creativity, it makes for an album that is aware, poignant, and intelligent
Lenker has a very obvious consciousness. She creates an atmosphere in Two Hands of self-reflection and need, the album is experimenting with what is internal and what is external, attempting to balance agony and contentment. Big Thief
It takes no effort to listen to a Big Thief album; from the moment I heard ‘Mythological Beauty’ back in