Double Infinity

It's sunset at the end of an era, and Big Thief are playing atop the peeling paint on the wraparound porch of the oldest house on the block. It's cozy and inviting, and always a bit heartbreaking. Adrianne Lenker's trio with endlessly inventive guitarist Buck Meek and drummer/synth wizard James Krivchenia may have lost their original bass player, Max Oleartchik, last year, but their sixth record, Double Infinity, is their most deeply orchestrated outing yet.Between producer and engineer Dom Monks' dense mix and contributions from at least 10 additional musicians — including new age ambient veteran Laraaji (zither, vocals, piano) — they've stirred up a soup of warm and strange sounds to soothe. Everyone is invited to be a part of this final front porch jamboree: a folky, incredibly primordial reflection on (and of) the world.The band had initially set out to make a "heavy rock" record after Oleartchik's departure. In Lenker's own words to MOJO Magazine, "It reminded us, wait, rock 'n' roll's so far beyond a genre. Like, the Earth has mountains and the bedrock and the core and the Earth's crust — it's the rock. Then there's the roll of the rivers, the ether, the wind, the clouds — these things that flow and blow across the surface of the rock. It reminds us of the idea of two infinities, too, the microcosms and the macro-universe and the dichotomy we live with in every moment, knowing that our bodies will die but we feel this sense of an infinite spirit."There's an immense weight behind the delicate sound across these nine loose songs meditating on aging, family and the infinite. Three years have passed since the band's last LP, the double album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. That record felt like a dark, traumatic culmination of the trilogy that included U.F.O.F. and their masterwork, Two Hands. Here, the songs deal with bloodlines and their knotted, troubled pasts, but they've been wisened by each and every ring that time has drawn around the tree trunk.On Laraaji's largest vocal feature, "Grandmother," Lenker sings, "Grandmother, sleep tight / Sleep loose / It's alright / Everything that happened, happened / So what's the use of holding? / It's unfolding." It was the first new piece written for the album, and its grand, synth-drenched build to Laraaji's improvised, wordless vocalizations sets a high watermark. These moments feel like other musicians and neighbours stepping onto the porch with Big Thief, and spinning their stories within the band's.The twangy mouth harp textures on "Words" would be pastiche in the hands of any other band, but here it's a cozy drone element in the electro-Americana swells between shimmery acoustic strums. Another early standout, the song is uplifting in its woodsy groove and soaring backing vocals. The chorus rises up from the Earth itself, making it easier to imagine that this collection of tunes was birthed from the collective human experience rather than a mere mortal trio of musicians.There's such a joy on Double Infinity, an appreciation for life and time spent together. In fact, there's impromptu laughter on a few of the tracks, like the most stripped-down, acoustic ballad here, "Los Angeles". Big Thief's claim to fame has been their show-stopping ability to tap into a universal heartache, but much like on Lenker's 2024 solo outing, Bright Future, there's a contentedness here; a playfulness; a willingness to be silly. Instead of shying away from the shadows of life, the band embrace the dark with the light, relishing in it all. It's such a sharp contrast to their earlier work, this sense of acceptance with a knowing smile.Lenker pens one of her most beautiful verses yet on the opening song, "Incomprehensible": "But the soft and lovely silvers are now falling on my shoulder / My mother and my grandma, my great-grandmother too / Wrinkle like the river, sweeten like the dew." She views our frail, creaky bodies not as shameful objects to be hidden, but as warm bridges to our place in nature. On the title track, Lenker calls out to the world, "Beauty speak to me / Let me know you, let me see / Myself inside your mystery / Through the crystal cage of aging," urging us to soften our eyes on the hardness of living. She's beginning to see herself as part of something greater, the waterfalls and the woods — even when they're on fire.Double Infinity winds down on the early '70s Dylan-esque "How Could I Have Known," with a shaggy, golden-hour drumbeat courtesy of Krivchenia. It's their most gentle collection of music so far, and yet, that heaviness the band initially longed for permeates the album. It's not in arrangements or the playing, however, but in the implications of Lenker's words. How can we love through time? How do we hold love for ourselves, others, and even those who've wronged us?When it all becomes too much, Big Thief just want us to laugh at the absurdity of it all, and watch the pale sun go down on a beautiful, impossible world with them.