Big Thief - Two Hands

The craziest thing to me would be to rate one album highly—high enough to be best if the year—yet not feel the same about the other. There are differences to be sure but the overall quality is high on both. They are a fitting pair even if not officially a double album.

many XP

thanks for the 4AD tip! snagged them both as well. Also, scott walker's "the drift" double LP for $13!

They're a funny bunch, aren't they?

― djh, Friday, November 29, 2019 2:22 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

What is the sound of one clave?

I finally got around to “getting into” their other albums.... what an absurdly good band. It feels almost preposterous that they’ve written & recorded this many great songs in the span of just a few years.

It’s remarkable how many different styles and “moods” they inhabit, while always sounding like themselves. (Some of the songs on Capacity almost have a Pinback feel — that measured, chiming, tick-tock quality.)

Also, I don’t typically notice lyrics unless they’re very good (or very bad) — and Adrianne’s are clearly very, very good.

Yes. These guys are the real deal.

I found a secondhand copy of Masterpiece for about £12 the other day, meaning I just need Capacity to own them all. I have a sneaking feeling Capacity is their best, but that's nonsense - ofc ourse the one that's their best is whichever one I'm listneing to at the time, right?

That said, I find there's a bit on each album (usually towards the end) where I'm not as into the songs. Or maybe they're just not as instantaneous.

NOT TO DIE
NOT DYING
NOT TO LAUGH
NOT LYING

the crack (rasp?) in her voice on that "it's not the hunger" line just slays me

Masterpiece is the "poppiest" / most immediate; Two Hands is the heaviest / most intense. The other two fall in between, I guess...

NOT TO DIE
NOT DYING
NOT TO LAUGH
NOT LYING

― alpine static, Thursday, January 16, 2020 12:51 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

fucking love that part

Masterpiece is the "poppiest" / most immediate; Two Hands is the heaviest / most intense. The other two fall in between, I guess...

― stop creeping my instagram storiez (morrisp), Thursday, January 16, 2020 2:33 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ufof is the most spectral, capacity has a little of everything

i still think capacity is the best one

agreed

Shark Smile was the first track I ever heard and loved right away

Masterpiece: Bang
Capacity: Back From the Dead
UFOF: Bang 2
Two Hands: AlmightySo

Two Hands has left the biggest impression on me overall though

pvmic

xp

Is it wrong though

it makes more sense than it should

I'm not sure Two Hands is the heaviest. 'Not' is heavy, and the sound is rawer and more upfront than UFOF but Capacity feels weightier in comparison

I dunno, there are parts of Two Hands that I almost find hard to listen to — due to that rawness, and intensity, and lyrics that evoke things of terrible gravity (without naming them directly):

Charcoal womb, the jet planes purr
And the croon, distant as paper
Children burn, faceless vapor
'Cause the toy in my hand is real

(But I also haven’t spent as much time with Capacity yet.)

"mythological beauty" from capacity has that rawness in spades. i'd copy and paste parts but then i'd just start pasting verses

https://genius.com/15624811

Masterpiece: Bang
Capacity: Back From the Dead
UFOF: Bang 2
Two Hands: AlmightySo

― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Thursday, January 16, 2020 2:29 PM (five hours ago)

hall of fame post

I've been enjoying watching YouTube videos of this band; there are some great ones (their Tiny Desk Concert is older and brief, but mesmerizing).

I particularly get a kick out of the thin, blonde guitarist with the unlikely name of "Buck Meek"... he's like some conglomeration of Buddy Holly, Andy Dick, and Zander Schloss, pulling a constant assortment of shimmies, jerks, grimaces, and head-bobs.

I'd say none of these 4 people are particularly shy about flaunting their sartorial eccentricities.

to their credit!

Thoguht I'd put together a 'Best-Of' / 'Beginner's Guide' for my pals

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41650wZfn3Mjd0AMcjrWDT?si=We6DsegYSImEIb3HPRvBYw

In line w my earlier post, this is one of the few indie bands where I feel like a ranked list of their songs would actually flesh out rather than minimize their talents .... 25 best big thief songs ranked or whatevr ... between that & releasing two albums in a year they kinda operate like a rap group

yep. and a band whom I'm very happy are churning it out because I spend a lot of time with each one and each is high quality

I mentioned them to my uncle a little while back... he and I sometimes talk music, tho our tastes only occasionally align (he's mainly into mellow singer-songwriter/c&w).

He emailed me today that he's been listening to Masterpiece nonstop, and that he likes it even more than Two Hands ("because I'm old"). He also said that "Masterpiece" (the song) "weirdly and for reasons I haven't yet put my finger on makes me think of The Band's 'The Weight.'"

“Masterpiece” does have a 70s classic country-rock chug, & is a very easy entry point to the band for folks coming from alt-country. “The Weight” isn’t a huge stretch.

When I first heard the opener of 'Capacity' I mistook BT for a country-rock band. They definitely have a bit of Bobby Gentry / Delta Swamp Boogie feeling somewhere in there

So far I've heard Capacity, U.F.O.F., and Two Hands, and I love them all. How does Adrianne's solo album (abysskiss) compare to them?

It’s acoustic, and fairly calm/meditative; with a bit of a “droning” effect from the repetitive fingerpicking and slow tempos. A few of the songs are performed by the full band on U.F.O.F.

Her earlier album, Hours Were the Birds, has a more traditional singer-songwriter feel.

of course the one that's their best is whichever one I'm listneing to at the time, right?

^I've sort of come around to this p.o.v., after listening all weekend.

Also, this band has a quality that reminds me of Led Zeppelin -- not because they sound anything alike (it's hard to imagine two more different singers!), but because each of their albums is so distinctive, and every song they've released carries a certain importance.

You know how you can find those online features with "All 92(?) 74(?) 87(?) Led Zeppelin Songs, Ranked"? (there's disagreement on how to count). Even your "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper," or whatever, is elevated just by being etched on that awesome stone tablet of the Official Zep Catalog. There are no Zep "throwaways"; every song is important & key, part of the mythology (...until maybe you get to Coda). I'm sure there are other bands whose fans would say something similar about them; but I don't think I would personally make the same claim about most of the bands I love (they all have "lesser" tracks here and there, or, "yeah, that's an ok song," etc.).

Big Thief are obviously only halfway to matching the Zep output -- though if the parallel is accurate, they're about to hit their most killer stretch (lol) -- but they feel similar to me, in the sense that each Big Thief song has its own center of gravity. Even the few songs I'm not super hot on (I wish Capacity's title track were a little less, I dunno, sludgy?) have my respect & attention, and feel like they should be inscribed up on the big Rock 'n Roll wall somewhere.

'Capacity' title track always reminds me of Moon River for some reason

xp yeah the first thing I thought when I heard them was Comus (voice, melodies) and then Zep (overall band vibe)

Huh, never heard of Comus (just looked them up). I mentioned on the other thread how I hear some Slapp Happy in certain Big Thief songs; looks like there may be some overlap there.

“Not” gets all the attn... but “Shoulders” is also

A

JAM

Yeah Not I'd great and everything but maybe a tiny bit overrated at the expense of other songs on the album.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-EAOdaDidy/

adrienne posted a lovely new song to instagram

why do i always misspell her name

be guided by the capitalized-“A” stylization: https://www.discogs.com/release/12550569-Stages-Of-The-Sun/images

!!!

O_o

This is some Y Kant AdriAnne Read shit right there

www.AdriAnne.com is still under her control!

A batch of recent demos on sale, to benefit their road crew: https://bigthief.bandcamp.com/album/demos-vol-1-topanga-canyon-ca-feb-2018

One more: https://bigthief.ffm.to/loveinmine

“We all felt this song was one of the strongest
songs/captures in the Two Hands batch but we could never quite get it to fit in a sequence. Happy to be sharing it now”