IN REVIEW: Big Thief - "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You"

 

Big Thief, to this point, have kind of always done this albums thing in pairs; their first two, 2016's Masterpiece and 2017's Capacity, share much of the same sonic mojo (though there is undeniable progression between the albums as well), while their third and fourth (U.F.O.F. and Two Hands) were released just five months apart. All the while, they've built up a devoted following with their raw, open-hearted folk/indie rock; with their profile continuing to rise, then, it kind of makes sense that Big Thief would expand their fifth album out to a double album.

The wonderfully, whimsically titled Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You feels much like its cover, so as to say it combines the earthy and celestial, the current and the past, around the campfire; compared to earlier works, the majority of their fifth album feels, above all else, more intimate. There's less intensity and more openness, with imperfections (such as studio chatter and tape hiss) allowed to sit alongside more polished and fussed-over productions, one of the results of recording in four separate sessions.

These four sessions help to create a variety that prevents such a supersized suite of songs (20 songs over 81 minutes) from becoming too much of a slog; there's a distinct old-school country connection to tracks such as Change, Spud Infinity, Certainty, Red Moon and Blue Lightning, both musically and thematically. Elsewhere, things veer into more wintry and starkly arranged acoustics, like Sparrow, Dried Roses, Promise Is a Pendulum and The Only Place. There's also a handful of interesting experiments, including the layered and dreamlike Heavy Bend, the percussive and unsettling Blurred View, the slushy, electronic-laced Wake Me Up To Drive and the dark, sweaty lo-fi banger Love Love Love.

Where DNWMIBIY really shines for me is in its more expansive, colourful moments; Time Escaping is an early highlight, its instrumentation all playing into its hypnotic rhythm while blossoming into a vibrant, weirdly soothing chorus. The title track comes in waves, through pretty acoustic strumming and a restrained, slide guitar-accented chorus into its multi-layered, jammy finale. Little Things offers a thick and glossy rhythm, recalling the most artistically uplifting fringe rock of the '80s (imagine Peter Gabriel via Lone Justice for a starting reference point). Flower of Blood is haunted and gorgeous, reverbed guitars rising and falling as one of the album's most heartfelt moments unfurl around them. No Reason is pure chilled-out AM radio bliss, its pretty melody punctuated by a tasteful flute. Then, there's the single Simulation Swarm, which comes late in the tracklist yet packs one of its biggest punches; a sinewy bassline buoys the rhythm while gentle acoustics and Adrianne Lenker's plaintive vocal carry the melody. The song doesn't need anything else to succeed, but also throws in the album's most immediate chorus and a couple of pleasant, elastic guitar passages, just to sweeten the pot.

With any project of this magnitude, you run a much greater risk of some filler sneaking in, for certain songs to slip through the cracks, and DNWMIBIY is no exception; while I didn't lose interest completely over the course of the 81 minutes, I did naturally gravitate to the more vibrant sounding tracks and afforded some of the back half's quieter moments a bit less attention as a result. It should also be said that, while allowing for their variety to be showcased in its sequencing, the album's constant back-and-forth aesthetics make it a very inconsistent experience when taken all at once. This was inescapable, as organizing the songs by feeling would have likely made for a more tedious listen, but the current presentation gives the songs an interchangeable feel, and I couldn't help but mentally trim down the tracklist to a more digestible single album in my head as I went through the second and third times.

At the end of the day, having too many songs is a better problem than not having enough, and Big Thief's fifth album has plenty of great songs to spare. It's a lot to take in, but there isn't much here that doesn't offer rewards for those who have the time and patience to do so; whether you return to all, most, some or none of the songs is up to you, but the sonic journey undertaken on Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is certainly one worth taking.

February 11, 2022 • 4AD

Highlights Time Escaping • Little Things • Simulation Swarm