It feels like Big Thief give us just the right amount of music to tide us over until we’re aching for more. In 2019, they released two albums, U.F.O.F. and Two Hands, and since then individual members of the group have been releasing their own music while the band itself was laying low: last year Adrianne Lenker released the two albums Songs and Instrumentals, drummer James Krivchenia revealed an experimental solo record A Newfound Relaxation, and earlier this year Buck Meek shared his album Two Saviors. But today we get new music from the band in the form of the singles “Little Things” and “Sparrow.”
Together, the two tracks illustrate familiar and fresh sounds for Big Thief. On the lingering “Sparrow,” Lenker sings about an eagle’s scream, snakes, apples, and potent fluids like blood, juice, and poison. Tack piano, unhurried percussion, and warm guitar strums push her metaphorical words to the forefront. It’s a retelling of the Biblical creation tale, Lenker singing, “Adam said, ‘She has the poison inside her / She talks to snakes and they guide her.'”
“We all just scattered about the room without headphones, focused and in the music—you could feel that something special was happening,” explained drummer James Krivchenia, who produced both “Sparrow” and “Little Things.” “It was a funny instrumentation that had a really cool natural arrangement chemistry—Max [Oleartchik] on piano, Buck providing this dark ambience, me on floor tom and snare, and Adrianne in the middle of it with the acoustic and singing.”
The second single “Little Things” is a refreshing sound for Big Thief. Lenker’s vocals are positioned further back as robust instrumentation swims around her. At times, her vocals are fragmented into prismatic shards. Even when she’s not singing, cool wisps of her voice break through. Sometimes there’s a screech or a whimper or cry of relief. “It’s in this sort of evolving free time signature where the beat is always changing,” said Krivchenia, “so Max and I were just flowing with it and guessing where the downbeats were—which gives the groove a really cool light feeling.”
Listen to “Sparrow” and “Little Things” below. Check out Big Thief’s upcoming tour here.
