Sydney-born singer-songwriter Indigo Sparke has just shared the video of “Colourblind,” the opening track off her debut album echo, co-produced by Big Thief‘s Adrianne Lenker. Melding softness with grit, the diaristic project explores her “experiences of addiction, of healing, of queerness, of heartbreak, of joy, of connection”.

“When writing and recording the record, I wondered how it would all come together,” she explained about the creation of echo. “I felt like I was standing back in the desert, looking up at the blue night sky, wondering how all the stars would connect. I think sometimes it’s the dark matter or void space between them, that holds it all together. This record is an ode to death and decay. And the restlessness I feel to belong to something greater. Adrianne and I talked so much about keeping the record stripped back and simple, that is, we are all just constantly getting stripped back and humbled by life.”

Indigo Sparke co-directed the “Colourblind” visuals with Monica Buscarino. Watch below and pre-order the album via Bandcamp below.

Earlier this year, Big Thief have released their superb album U.F.O.F. and they’ve just announced its follow-up for October. According to the press release: “Where U.F.O.F. layered mysterious sounds and effects for levitation, Two Hands grounds itself on dried-out, cracked desert dirt”.

About the 10-track album, which was recorded just after the U.F.O.F. sessions, Big Thief‘s Adrianne Lenker stated:

[su_quote]Two Hands has the songs that I’m the most proud of; I can imagine myself singing them when I’m old. Musically and lyrically, you can’t break it down much further than this. It’s already bare-bones.[/su_quote]

The quartet has also shared the lead single, “Not”, that you probably already heard if you attended one of their recent gigs. Listen and check the tracklising of the album below.

Big Thief – Two Hands

01 “Rock And Sing”

02 “Forgotten Eyes”

03 “The Toy”

04 “Two Hands”

05 “Those Girls”

06 “Shoulders”

07 “Not”

08 “Wolf”

09 “Replaced”

10 “Cut My Hair”

A few weeks ago, Big Thief announced the release of their third album with “UFOF,” a song that we called ‘a poetic and impressionistic piece of pop music’. Today, the American band is back with a brand new single, “Cattails,” which definitely highlights their folk roots. About the track, Big Thief‘s Adrianne Lenker detailed:

[su_quote]’Cattails’ came about while we were at the studio in Washington in the pine forest. Writing it was just one of those electric multicolored waves of connectivity just sweeping through my body. I stayed up late finishing the song and the next morning was stomping around playing it over and over again. We thought why not just record it, so James sat at the drums and we practiced and by the time we’d finished practicing, Dom Monks — our engineer — had already sneakily set up mics and recorded it. It was beautiful that he’d captured it right away because when James and I were playing it felt like a little portal in the fabric had opened and we were just flying. Listening back to it makes me cry sometimes.[/su_quote]

Big Thief have announced their third studio album U.F.O.F. and released its title track as their new single. Following Adrianne Lenker’s captivating 2018 solo album abysskiss, UFOF will be the first offering from the Brooklyn indie rock quartet since their 2017 breakthrough album Capacity, which still stands as one of the best indie rock records of the late 2010s. A poetic and impressionistic piece of pop music, “UFOF” ranks among the best Big Thief songs. By its first twenty seconds, it has already ticked all of the Big Thief boxes: intricate acoustic guitars, off-kilter drumming patterns, and, most importantly, Lenker’s reserved, almost murmur-like vocals. “UFOF” is indisputably Big Thief, a song so beautifully written and produced that it doesn’t need to do anything particularly special to keep you breathless for three minutes.

It’s not like Big Thief’s new single is simply a re-hash of their previous material, though. It’s a somewhat lazy observation, but “UFOF” feels like a logical follow-up to Lenker’s solo album – less melody-oriented, more singer-songwriter. “UFOF” even includes a brief experimental detouring, as its bridge basically consists of chopped-up spoken-word fragments. Arguably even more than with previous Big Thief material, “UFOF” is a vessel for Lenker’s beautiful lyricism to come out. At the end of the day, it hardly matters whether Lenker focuses more on the words or on the music. She is a special songwriter with a rare ability to craft touching pieces of music at an insane rate. Whether solo or with Big Thief, she can do no wrong, and “UFOF” continues her streak.

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Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker recently released a solo album full of intimate guitar songs titled abysskiss. She has now shared a video for the single “symbol” which was directed by Vanessa Haddad. The beautiful clip takes place in New York City’s Coney Island where the singer-songwriter is strolling and enjoying the local effervescence. The video comes with a statement from the director:

[su_quote]The sincerity and intimacy of “symbol” inspired us to take a documentary approach to the music video. The project is a sort of tribute and love letter to New York City, Coney Island, and all of the people who make those places so special. We spent a couple of days walking the boardwalk and taking video portraits of people we met. We documented whatever they felt like sharing. It was such a warm experience – each person was so giving.[/su_quote]

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When Big Thief‘s Adrianne Lenker announced that she would put out a solo album, it came as a surprise for everyone. To start with, Big Thief have only been a band for about four years, having released two excellent records in 2016 and 2017. You expect artists to go solo when they’re older and they start feeling burnt out with their main gig, not when things are just getting started. Lenker had already put out a solo album, but that was in 2014, even before Big Thief was formed. But what makes it even more shocking is that Big Thief already felt like Lenker‘s solo project. Not to diminish the other members’ contribution to the band’s music, but the bulk of released Big Thief material is so dominated by Lenker‘s intimate lyrics and heartfelt vocals than it’s hard to think of Big Thief as anything other than Her Band.

That being said, it’s hard not to get excited with the prospect of more Lenker material. She’s one of the brightest young songwriters in the world today, her music keeping a resonating warmth that can sometimes overshadow the sheer brilliance of her melodies. A single spin of her new solo album “abysskiss” will make it clear why Adrianne Lenker chose to release these songs under this moniker. “abysskiss” is distinctively Lenker, but it’s clearly not Big Thief material. This is a solo album in the strictest sense of the word. Basically, there are only two actors in this play – Adrianne Lenker and her guitar. “abysskiss” is comprised of low and mid tempo serenades interpreted by Lenker as she fingerpicks her guitar in what might as well be called singer-songwriter style.

At times, it’s not even too far fetched to think that it was all recorded in one take with a single microphone. Its instrumental minimalism being a perfect match with Lenker’s heartfelt voice, “abysskiss” reaches levels of warmth and closeness that even exceed her work with Big Thief. “Intimate” is an adjective that gets references way too much when it comes to music, but that is exactly what Adrianne Lenker‘s new album is. Showcasing the genuine beauty that has become a trademark of Lenker‘s songwriting, these are the kind of recordings that end up in a bonus disc of home demos of the final product. That is far from being a bad thing. “abysskiss” provides an even more private look at the songwriting processes of an incredibly talented musician whose music has always been defined by how truly honest it feels. Here, she is turning up her act to eleven, and it pays off.

Although a large chunk of the album relies almost exclusively on acoustic guitars, some of “abysskiss”’ brightest moments are precisely those when that trend is discounted. In “out of your mind”, Lenker‘s acoustic ruminations go hand in hand with a grungey, distorted guitar, bringing in a much-welcome contrast with the album’s go-to aesthetics. As for her guitar playing, it does the trick. Except for some rare instances (the almost art-pop “symbol”), Lenker‘s fingerpicking won’t let anyone open-mouthed, but it succeeds as a functional backbone on which she constructs her songs. Arguably the centerpiece of the album, “cradle” sees Lenker somewhere in between Sharon van Etten and Elliott Smith, adding layers and layers of haunting harmonies that take the song to the next level.

The cynic in us usually assumes that songwriters with a prolific output leave their A game for their main project and give use to the filler with their side ventures. Considering how close in time both Big Thief albums are, it wouldn’t be even that unlikely that this was the case. But it isn’t. The songwriting in “abysskiss” is simply superb, and if Lenker‘s songs don’t stand out on their own as much as they do with Big Thief, it’s only because of the album’s homogeneity. There’s barely any substantial aesthetic change from the opener to the closer, which works both in favour and against “abysskiss”. The album’s acoustic consistency grants it a sense of unity and seamlessness that turns it into this one big mood.

As an album to feel miserable to, “abysskiss” is simply untouchable. It’s a blanket-and-tea-on-a-Sunday album, and it works perfectly like that from front to end, as if it were comprised by a single, thirty-minute long song. Of course, that also means that it’s hard to see these songs as individual songs and not as part of a bigger whole – which is a shame in a way, because Lenker is one hell of a songwriter. Had these songs been arranged in more eclectic fashion, this would’ve been a more enjoyable album. But it also would’ve been stripped of its essence, so much that it’s probably not worth altering a single note. The defining feature of “abysskiss” is also its main crux, but that doesn’t stop it from being a commendable exercise on self-search by one of the best songwriters in our day and age.

In 2017, Adrianne Lenker-fronted Big Thief introduced themselves through the aptly-named “Masterpiece”, a debut album containing within it all the magic, honesty and mystery promised by its title. With Big Thief two devastatingly heartfelt albums in, “cradle” sees Adrianne Lenker return to her solo work with care and intention.

Awash with gorgeously layered harmonies and melodic acoustic fingerstyle, “cradle” wells with Lenker’s unmistakable, crooning vocals. There’s a light airiness in comparison to Big Thief’s distinctive twangy, fuzzed-up guitars, while still packing all the vulnerability and substance of Adrianne Lenker’s previous writing: “Baby you’re still too proud to come down / Maybe I’m still too loud to hear”. The perfect balance of emotion and understanding, every lyric is natural and instinctive.

As an artist, Lenker expresses the kind of self-understanding that comes only from varied experience. Born into a cult where she spent her first few years of life, Lenker didn’t attend high school. She recorded a handful of albums with her dad in her early teens before deciding to pursue the type of music that resonated with her most. Unfamiliar with shying away from the difficult or personal, Adrianne Lenker’s bare-all approach to song-writing is never overwhelming. On “cradle’” her words are few and tender; packed with that familiar and distinctly Lenker contemplative lyricism. And as it’s cut from the same delicate, comforting cloth as Big Thief’s “Lorraine” and “Coma”, “cradle”’s tenderness soothes the wounds it opens.

Big Thief‘s debut album ‘Masterpiece’ is undoubtedly one of the best pieces of music I’ve heard in my 24 years. Having released hits like ‘Masterpiece,’ ‘Real Love,’ ‘Interstate’ and more, it’s hard to imagine the four-piece topping themselves. Their brand new full length ‘Capacity’ did exactly that. The record was released on June 9th and I haven’t stopped listening since.

My favorite song off the Big Thief‘s album is ‘Watering’; there’s something about that won’t let me stop listening. Front-woman, guitarist and vocalist, Adrianne Lenker, takes the listener on such a visual journey with her words and melodies in ‘Watering.’

[su_quote]He cut off my oxygen
And my eyes were watering
As he tore into my skin
Like a lion

I knew it was poison
As he filled me to the brim
And my blood was dripping
Like a lamb

Screaming
Screaming
Screaming

Leave your bedroom light on
I live to watch you undress
And you know that I’m there
As you soak in my stare
With your right arm
[/su_quote]

Lenker is a breathtaking writer and lyricist; she has this dismal tone to her vocals that somehow always manage to come out so beautifully. Lenker had an interesting upbringing. Having been born into a religious cult in Indiana and living around the Midwest in vans with her parents, and 14 different houses before she was 8, her lyrics are naturally dark and graphic. The 25-year old has been through so much in her life and it is so apparent in her writing. She effortlessly and accurately portrays her emotion in her music, and it seems to really carry the band in my opinion.

The instrumentation by band-mates Buck Meek (guitar), Max Oleartchik (bass), and James Krivchenia (drums) is so appropriate for the song and compliment Adrianne’s vocals flawlessly.

Check out “Watering” below, and listen to the rest of ‘Capacity‘ (out now via Saddle Creek) while you’re at it.

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