Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

abysskiss & songs are both excellent singer-songwriter albums but being that they're not really as exciting as what they're capable of as a whole band

I can't believe I didn't like Spud Infinity that much at first. now it just seems brilliant, perfect

10.9

if i ever see them live i am going to have to be that annoying as hell guy who sings along at the TOP of his lungs, on that song at least. it's one of the best songs i've ever heard, and the lyrics are a 10.8

https://i.imgur.com/pFB1NoA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bO4Qs15.png

post of the year

it's the song of the century

Listened to this on vinyl a half dozen times this weekend. It doesn't feel overstuffed or anything to me, though listening to it on four physical sides maybe helps break it up and compartmentalize in a way that would be lost in other mediums. I also appreciate how they printed the lyrics in a manner that clearly aims for them to be read instead of cramming them on the sleeves in size 5 font.

I don't know Tusk well enough to get the comparisons, but for me I was reminded of the "tight" double album feel of Exile on Main St, which is diverse but never departs from what I consider the Stones' core sounds/styles. The country songs are some of the best here! "Spud Infinity" has been lodged in my head for the last two days.

Releasing a third of it between November and January has helped my assimilation.

Exile is an interesting call. I was clearly off-base with my Physical Graffiti prediction

it's funny exile is a double album and a really iconic album, but i don't feel like it ever comes up when ppl talk about iconic double albums, maybe because people usually expect the more white album type thing, really diverse stylistically

I think they're more thematically akin. The thing that unites stuff like White Album and Tusk and Exile and Sandinista! even is essentially a band literally not or at least often sounding like it's not working together as a band, per se. A few people there, a few people here, some tracks just one person, some two, different sessions cobbled together, a product of divergent individual interests and distractions, and so on. What's more unique about this album is it kind of *sounds* like some of those shambling, shaggy records, but it still very much sounds like a product of a band working together closely as a band (which is in part why it sometimes recalls the particular Americana alchemy of the Band).

They actually sound -- or at least create the impression that -- like they're having the most fun they've ever had.

Yeah, those other aforementioned albums are the end-product of bands you couldn't get to be in the same room together. This one sounds more like the end-product of a band you can't get to *leave.*

wow this is an interesting nugget from lenker's wikipedia:

attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band.[3]

Good call, Josh.

Releasing a third of it between November and January has helped my assimilation.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, February 14, 2022 7:43 AM (two hours ago)

i was thinking this last night. agree 100%. if i hadn't already absorbed those 8 (was it 8?) songs, this album would feel overwhelming and i don't know that i'd ever give any of it the time it deserves. as it is, i feel like i can set those 8 aside and focus on the rest of it now.

On the other hand, I'd not knowingly listened to any Big Thief before Friday but have been spinning it ever since - I did initially have an "oh. it's a double album" moment but have been very impressed with its repeat-playability

"Love Love Love" is SO loose-limbed & groovy... the "feel" reminds of me of some other artist or song that I can't at all put my finger on... maybe a Dylan thing(?)

I'm stuck on "Flower of Blood," a Ride song played at Cocteau Twins speed.

"Blue Lightning" is such a great closer... placing it at the end reminds me of "After Hours" (VU) a lil bit.

Gotta love an album that kicks off with, "Would you live forever, never die / While everything around passes? / Would you smile forever, never cry?"; and ends with, "I wanna live forever 'til I die / Yeah, I wanna live forever 'til I die..."

Been pulling through
Since the last time I touched you
Making do with an internet signal
Calling for the delivery to the front door

There is no reason to believe
No reason at all
Come together for a moment
Look around and dissolve
Like a feeling, like a flash
Like a fallin' eyelash on your sweater
Threading future through the pas

"blue lightning" as a closer kinda reminds me of "last orders please" by the faces, as done by workingman-era dead

yeah, that stretch caught my ear, too. (xpost)

she good

this band is just so generous

The Japanese bonus tracks are now on YouTube (sadly, "Dragon" is not the rocking version).

(...or maybe "happily," if that means there's a chance it may appear on the follow-up album!)

buck confirmed in a recent interview that the rock version they've been playing live was recorded in topanga canyon with shawn everett, hopefully it'll see the light of day soon enough. i think there's a decent chance it's on the follow-up

tucson version is fascinating but clearly not as compelling as the other two, a bonus track for a reason. there's also another version recorded in upstate new york we don't know anything about.

and "light is as is" is just fine

Just listened to this straight through twice, wow it's good. So many good songs!

and then they post pics like this in their IG Stories, haha

https://i.imgur.com/rwJCmVJ_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Their persona as a band feels very late '60s in the way a lot of bands seemed like goofy weirdos at the time. Thinking of the San Francisco scene in particular.

i hadn't listened to these guys until i heard little things in the track poll but this album is really excellent. I don't know anything about their persona but this album really sounds to me like hippies re-writing Anodyne so them having a San Fran persona makes a lot of sense to me.

i'm surprised nobody's mentioned 'being there' as one of dragon's double album antecedents

^^^ otm, makes a lot of sense. I was half expecting it to be broken into two CDs.

It's kind of like Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot all in one, the sprawl and the conscious artistic leap. (NB I've never been a huge fan of YHF, but like Kid A it felt like a band growing and stretching and knowing that they're growing and stretching, doing it deliberately — which this does too.)

Fan of the singles but the vocals wear me out throughout the album. Shame for me.

I once thought as you do.

then what happened?

Their persona as a band feels very late '60s in the way a lot of bands seemed like goofy weirdos at the time. Thinking of the San Francisco scene in particular.

You know, Jefferson Airplane is a really good touchstone for this band... even down to the distinctiveness of each album and even song in their catalogue; the prominence of the "rhythm section" as full band members; the weightiness of their concerns (which involve themes of nature & technology – though approached differently); and, indeed, something about the personalities / "presence" / styles of the folks involved. Some differences are that JA had a few different songwriters in the band (as opposed to mainly Adrianne), a non-guiter-playing singer, etc.

(JA had several different singers too, obv)

Wow, I have also never knowingly heard this band, and this is fantastic.

km - wasn’t sure if there was a slight tinge of facetiousness in your lauding Spud Infinity upthread, but now that I’m hearing it I don’t think so! Awesome song!

Song that caught me on the most recent listen was "Blurred View," which drifts through red-zone fuzz and rattling railroad percussion in a way that feels yearning and a little sinister.

Also, I loved Lenker's acoustic demo of "Simulation Swarm" last year, it's fun to compare it to the album version — you can hear what happens when it goes through the band filter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRReuyuyk9I

i absolutely love the solo in "simulation swarm," incredible to see her reproduce it on acoustic

She is among other things a terrific guitarist.

Love what max came up with on bass for that one.

12,000 Lines is a perfect little song