Album: Big Thief’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In

Genre: Folk rock, Indie rock

Release Date: February 11, 2022

Length: 20 songs, 1 hr 20 min

*Felicity’s pick*

Felicity: Big Thief’s fifth studio album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You captures Adrianne Lenker’s folksy and idiosyncratic voice and the band’s unique sounds and rhythms. This album sticks out from the others in more ways than one: the music is much more of a saturated folk sound, and even the cover breaks away from the “Polaroid like ” photos of the previous four albums. While some songs produce a preternatural sound, (boings and ribbits as heard in track 3, Spud Infinity) the band captures just enough strange with just enough beauty and ease. The band surprised me with a much more flagrant sound- one I was not expecting but not disappointed with. Many of Big Thief’s albums are quite similar to each other, and this album really breaks away from their past sound. I was able to see them in concert last summer, and their sound was very distinct; they even played some of their songs from this album before it debuted. One thing I noticed was that many of their past albums seem to hold back, and in concert the band really lets go and creates a captivating sound I hadn’t heard before; this record is most similar to the “jam out” feeling I got in concert. I know that Jeremy is not the biggest fan of the band as he finds Lenker’s voice to be slightly unpleasant at times, but I know that he does enjoy the more melodic and less sharp notes of Lenker, which this album demonstrates in a few of their songs. Overall, I recommend this album and cannot wait to see what Big Thief tries, and likely succeeds with, next.

Favorite tracks: Certainty, No Reason, Simulation Swarm

Jeremy: Though I am not the biggest fan of Big Thief, I did enjoy this album a lot. The intro song, Change, reels you in with a gentle acoustic guitar riff and repetitive drum pattern. Many songs on this album are produced this same way, which is not always a good thing. It was hard to keep track of the songs due to them sounding so similar to me, sometimes I even got bored listening to certain songs. Also, this was the band’s longest album that they’ve made yet. But, this did not necessarily mean that the album wasn’t enjoyable. This album was incredibly consistent, there weren’t many songs that I’d consider to stand out above the rest and there weren’t many songs that seemed way worse than others. I have critiqued Adrianne Lenker’s voice plenty of times, but I actually do believe that it worked well on this album. On some songs, such as Dried Roses, her voice sounded like it belonged perfectly, creating a late-night, sitting around a campfire with an acoustic guitar feeling. There were also some songs that sounded like a completely new sound for the band, such as Time Escaping and Flower of Blood, which made the album much more amusing as a whole. This album is probably my favorite of all of Big Thiefs’ albums so far and it definitely made me appreciate the band (and Adrianne Lenker’s voice) a lot more.

Favorite tracks: Simulation Swarm, Certainty, 12,000 Lines