Big Thief, now a trio formed by Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia after the exit of bassist Max Oleartchi, has announced new album, ‘Double Infinity’, which will see the light on September 5. Ironically, it seems that ‘Double Infinity’ will not be as extensive as the previous album, ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’ (2022), as nine cuts will be composed.
‘Uncrehensible’, the first advance of ‘Double Infinity’, is based on a restless and marked battery pace, but includes guitar and rope arrangements typical of Big Thief’s work. Lenker explained that, when he started writing it, during a journey by car, in his head it was a “great rock ‘n roll” song, but in the end it was in a “quieter” composition.
Autobiographical, like Lenker’s best lyrics, ‘misunderstanding’ begins by narrating the artist’s visit to her grandmother’s house in Minnesota, where she grew up. Lenker and his partner travel to the airport, but lose the plane, and decide to take the long road from Minnesota to their final destination, crossing Canada. While your partner sleeps, Lenker contemplates nature from the window.
Soon, ‘misunderstanding’ becomes a reflection on the passage of time and a celebration of old age: Lenker will turn 33 and does not understand why society has made him believe that he is greater. To Lenker, the gray hair that fall on their shoulders seem “precious” and evoke their elders: “My mother and my grandmother, and my great -grandmother too, wrinkle like the river, are sweetened like dew / as silver as the rainbow scales that shine blue and purple, how can the beauty that is alive not to be also true?”
A beautiful ode to life, as only Big Thief know how to do them, ‘misunderstanding’ offers a contrast between the daily beauty of his lyrics, and the disturbing spirit of his musical proposal. Doesn’t it sound ‘misunderstood’ even dark and mysterious, despite being born during a journey through one of the most beautiful panoramas in the United States?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqysmmfbci
