Review Summary: Personal, musical healing
This is going to sound corny, but there is a shimmering cloud of magical dust that encircles each song on
Double Infinity. Its songs flow like a river, with instrumentals that flutter like a bead curtain catching a breeze, and kinetic vocal melodies that waft around freely like a dreamcatcher. If these metaphors sound spiritual or "hippy", it’s because Big Thief have designed their 6th LP in exactly that way.
There has been discourse about this being the weakest album in Big Thief’s discography, (not an insult, considering they might be the best indie folk band currently active today). I can understand that, it definitely veers too far at times into barefoot, sitting-in-a-circle-and-all-holding-hands territory; the chanting on “Grandmother” is over the top, and “No Fear” fails to achieve the musical enlightenment it strives for. However,
Double Infinity is certainly the band’s most distinct album thanks to its free-form, jam-band song structures, and that uniqueness is a welcome development after 5 albums without major variation. And for me, its emotional highs are just as euphoric and spellbinding as on their magnum opus
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You.
Most importantly though… I’ve found that the spirituality infused within the album holds a power, and offers up a warm hug to those who need it most.
I’ve had a tough few weeks. I’ve experienced a lot of change, loss (both physical and psychological), and spent hours at a time inside my own head. The world is a scary place, and it’s scarier to feel vulnerable within it. We’re all spinning so fast.
So when Adrianne Lenker sings “Words are tired and tense / Words don’t make sense / Words are feathered and light / Words won’t make it right” (track 2, “Words”), it’s exactly what I need to hear after endless consecutive days of self-analysis and over-thinking. The swirling guitars, zithers and synthesisers are like a musical bandage around my over-worked brain.
The following track, “Los Angeles”, thanks to the band’s timelessly nostalgic chord progressions and Adrianne’s gorgeous, longing vocal timbre, helps reaffirm what I already know about love, and reassures me to not forget. “I can tell what you are thinking / even without saying / We dream our dreams together / Even without laying in the same bed”. Like ***… I knew this. I’ve always felt this. Thank you Big Thief for articulating it.
It’s not easy being the best indie folk band out there. It’s also not easy being a human being… you can feel alone in the world but at the same time surrounded by love (see… I’m overthinking again already). But Big Thief make it sound so easy, so effortlessly have they conjured up 9 songs to pull me out of my mind-prison and help me to touch some grass, to walk in the rain, to pet my cat, to hug my love.
Lenker gleefully repeats on
Double Infinity’s penultimate track, “I’m happy with you / Happy with you / Happy with you / Why do I need to explain myself?” I smile to myself, either having experienced emotional catharsis or left wondering whether it was needed at all to begin with. I’m happy with you. I’m happy with me. Must be that magical dust.
