Big Thief - U.F.O.F. (May 3, 2019)

Ha! I read it too. It's goofy to put it mildly.

Being able to bind all that is living and has ever lived together at the cellular level is what it takes to get a 9+ BNM score on Pitchfork in 2019. The only people meet that criteria this year are them and Beyonce.

yeesh, I love her too but

If you listen to the album and then read the review, it all kinda makes sense if a bit overblown. I do think the strength of Big Thief is that they seem plain and familiar on first blush but somehow pull you into a deep and strange world where the songs they created are the only things that exists.

But if I’d read that review prior to hearing a note of Big Thief, I’d be expecting something different—like, Charalambides or something.

that reads like the writer mixed up their Big Thief review with their "reconsidering midichlorians" piece on a Star Wars site.

I'm interested in the among other things, like can I bring my plants back to life with her lyrics? jk I love this record and I like this review too

I like parts of the review by but it's got a little too much dip on the proverbial chip

I've listened to this album twice and so far it seems a bit weightless and slight. The great thing about Capacity was its contrast of delicacy with hugely muscular moments. Each song had a very memorable 'bit' in it that was delivered with surprising immediacy whereas on this album it feels like they're tiptoeing around, trying hard not to be blunt.

This is resonating more for me than Capacity, though it is a very insular record.

I'm listening now - this is sounding fabulous. Opening two tracks especially

totally fucking obsessed with this record

i could go on and on about any song but "strange" has that gorgeous sunlit coda and "jenni" is this huge swallowing mouth of doom

“Century” has burrowed into my brain.

you have wings of gold
you will never grow old

Entrancing album. It takes me places that feel eerily familiar but I can't quite put my finger on it, like a déjà-vu. It's tender like an embrace.

i have never heard of this band before. their slow, calm, harmonical music is like a warm blanket i can wrap myself in. which works quite well right now as the temperatures outside in berlin are still quite low. the singer's voice who occasionally is quite mickey mousey (joanna newsom anyone?) bothers me sometimes but i kind of have gotten over to it. somehow their music to me sounds like coming straight from a huge dark forest full of elves and dwarfs. my fave is the first song "contact". i found it a bit hard to listen to the whole album in one go. maybe they should have gotten rid of a couple of songs in the second half. my attention span these days is not what it used to be. it must be due to the reign of the smartphone and stuff. concentration and patience have become a real challenge!

you should listen to their last album, too!! its also a blanket.

this album is beautiful

thinking there isn't anything I will love more than this for a while at least

another beautiful album by this band, but it isn't hitting me as hard as Capacity yet. prob just need to let it sink in a bit more. love the production though, particularly the way the drums sound on songs like the title track.

This is really amazing

Evokes a sort of jazzy, gauzy quality that I love about Hejira by Joni without really sounding derivative of that at all

Also would recommend if people haven't heard it - Rozi Plain - What a Boost

again not identical or anything but a very great and evocative album that has a somewhat similar feel and mix of folk/indie/jazz, def comes from a different place musically but if you like this you might like that

listening again and i think the second half is what makes it special. love how 'strange' uses a blues shuffle beat and still manages to remain so delicate, and how adrienne sounds like a totally different person on 'betsy.' and 'terminal paradise' and 'jenni' are just devastating.

The great thing about Capacity was its contrast of delicacy with hugely muscular moments.

i mean, there's that big moment near the end of 'contact,' but yeah, maybe that's one thing i miss on this record.

Evokes a sort of jazzy, gauzy quality that I love about Hejira by Joni without really sounding derivative of that at all

The great thing about Capacity was its contrast of delicacy with hugely muscular moments.

i mean, there's that big moment near the end of 'contact,' but yeah, maybe that's one thing i miss on this record.

― i think ur a controp (voodoo chili), Friday, May 10, 2019 9:35 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I also wish there were some harder-hitting vocals/songs of the sort the first two albums had. She definitely goes more toward the delicate on this one.

how adrienne sounds like a totally different person on ‘betsy’

The wispy vocals help emphasize that weird quality they're riding so well here. It's like they exist in their own hermetically sealed universe. Going back to the older albums, they almost sound too normal to me.

Also, the arrangements are all immaculate. I'm enjoying this a lot.

their slow, calm, harmonical music is like a warm blanket i can wrap myself in.

This is a great description of the quality I most prize in any music.

xp

I also wish there were some harder-hitting vocals/songs of the sort the first two albums had. She definitely goes more toward the delicate on this one.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, May 10, 2019 12:30 PM (five hours ago)

but the atmosphere of it is so amazing, better than anything they have achieved previously

I listened to all 3 albums in a row the other day & I really enjoyed how small and intimate this one sounded. Masterpiece, my first fave, sounds a bit too brash & widescreen when sandwiched between Capacity and UFOF. I’m really digging this one, with particular props to the Paranoid Android guitars on the title track.

listened another time w the hejira comparison in mind and it opened up the album enough for me that it's now my fav big thief i think? ums helpfully otm

I'm thinking this along with the new Lambchop will be my two most regulars listens this year. i love it. hoping the new Bill Callahan will be great to join them soon.

I love this record. I wish I found the lyrics more rewarding but that's my only criticism really

I'm definitely having a harder time accessing them than with the past albums. Really any criticism I have is in the context of this still being almost certainly one of the best records of the year.

yeah, "not as special as Capacity" is true of 99.9999% of all records.

I've been completely obsessed with this record for the last couple of weeks, have now gone back to the previous two and abysskiss, and... wow.

Has anyone seen them live? They're playing in London in a couple of days, and while it's sold out I'm tempted to try to get hold of a ticket.

i completely adore the lyrics on this album

really liked em when I saw em

saw them circa masterpiece, very good

one ear to the floor
my dog barking loud
couldn't tell for sure
where the screaming sound
was coming from

I made the effort to get a ticket and was really glad I did - they were absolutely fantastic..

Also while "Not"wouldn't fit on this record, I hope it's on the next one, I can't get it out of my head.

I haven't seen the band but I saw her solo and it was magical.

They are playing Brooklyn in October -- I hate having to plan these things so far out in advance. It's a fucking weeknight show, how can I decide five months ahead that I'll be up for it?

You buy the tickets safe in the knowledge you can sell them on (for face value) if you don’t feel like it.

(Or alternatively don't buy them in the knowledge that you can buy them face value if you feel like it (although this is probably slightly more hassle).)

was really struggling to fall asleep last night and kept putting on this record and nodding off and waking up in different pockets, really ideal even though i'm currently suffering

I Think this is growing on me slightly. I keep going back to it and little things pop out each time. I like how it doesn't sound anything like Radiohead, but there are small melodic vamps that suggest these guys grew up with Kid A and HTTT.

I really wanted to like this but her voice is the epitome of banal indie.

I had a similar feeling when I first heard them - maybe not 'banal' but 'been there, done that'. The stronger/lyrically clearer songs - Paul, Mythological Beauty - were what pulled me in, feel like this one's definitely a harder sell.

a lot of this actually does feel like a better executed version of what Radiohead were going for on some of A Moon Shaped Pool, it's not that close overall but the songwriting is very Radiohead at times ("From" in particular invokes "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" quite strongly and there's the occasional melodic fragment that feels 'Radiohead' here and there) and all the individual pieces are there for the AMSP vibes (the loose swirling piano in the background of "Cattails", the general sense of ambience, a lot of the lead guitar parts especially on "From" and "Terminal Paradise", the drumming) though they come together in a much better way than on that album

i understand how some can prefer Capacity to this if they were really into the lyrics on that but this one's so much stronger musically, but i do much prefer them going all in on the dreamy folk thing that was only one part of Capacity and still don't really care for the more straightforward indie rock songs like "Shark Smile"

There are some serious fashion faux pas going on, especially the bass player and drummer, but they lean into it so hard, I just have to laugh.

musicians with bad fashion and appalling haircuts, you hate to see it

https://thefader-res.cloudinary.com/private_images/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best/unnamed_ay8kk0/big-thief-ufof-interview-adrianne-lenker.jpg

What kind of hat is that?

he's just back from building a barn in east PA

I haven't had the opportunity yet to see them live (though tix go on sale tmrrw for a show here in August) -- but I've been absorbed in their albums for the past few weeks ,deeper than I've been absorbed in anything for a while. They're just so good... top-percentile albums. I'm astonished by the quality of the songwriting and performances.

Also, you can't judge a band by a ropey TV performance, everyone knows that!

I will concede that Adrianne's voice may be an "acquired taste" (as I'm reminded when my wife gives me a "What the f are you listening to?" look) -- but I completely forget about that, or no longer hear it, when I'm absorbed in their music.

lol the first time I put it on my wife was instinctively irritated by Lenker's voice as well and she's generally more lenient in indie rock-related matters than I am.

The voice is the strongest element imo; striking and distinctive. The instrumental music is fine but not usually mind-blowing imo so it all depends on the songs. A few really grab me, the rest I don't mind and may continue to grow on me.

High on the list of U.F.O.F.'s numerous virtues is the brief, economical, gorgeous guitar solo that closes out "Century."

― dad genes (morrisp), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 6:27 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

like the album but that solo on "jenny" reminds me of successfully tackling the guitar solo of "go your own way" on rock band 2.

Haha, I love a good one-note gtr solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C_ax0XYn1E

fantastic footage of one of the new songs they were playing on tour

Sounds really nice. Are those fancy new custom guitars of some sort?

they both play collings iirc. high-end maker out of austin.

^when ur Casio DG-1 is in the shop

Anyway, that song -- OMG! I'm instantly obsessed. What does it remind me of(??) Some specific early-'90s hippie/granola rock touchpoint...?

Here's another good recording (different show):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bir8m4Q0yDk

holy shit, I can't believe this song... it's like the best thing you ever heard a cool older kid playing on a summer-camp mixtape when you're 12 years old

The only songs it specifically brings to mind, sound/vibe–wise, are Rush's "Time Stand Still" and Collective Soul's "December"... silly/inapt reference points as these may be.

It also has sort of a peak-R.E.M. feel (though not necessarily “sound”).

I can absolutely picture this song, appearing on a fuzzy live tape of an unsigned band, causing a total A&R frenzy circa 1991.

that rhythm section needs a podcast or a sitcom or something

Ha, I'd listen to that.

It does sound like a song I've known most of my life, something to fall back on. It's reassuringly life-affirming.

XX post. re the guitars - they've been playing those two Collings guitars almost exclusively for a few years now. Maybe some kind of endorsement. Otherwise you're talking five grand each.

that's a great song (& nice sounding guitars), i'd love to see them live, they seem to be a band better in concert than in the studio...

this band fucking rules

i don't have that much more to say. i was listening to fordham radio and heard a live version of 'masterpiece.' it just ripped