Big Thief

Brooklyn-based quartet Big Thief were among the most acclaimed indie rock bands of the turn of the 2020s, with a malleable style centred on the mystic, emotionally unsparing songwriting of lead singer and guitarist Adrianne Lenker. The group arose from a folk-duo collaboration between Lenker and guitarist and co-writer Buck Meek. The band’s first release, 2016’s Masterpiece, showcased a full-scale rock unit, building toward climaxes reminiscent of Crazy Horse and paring down for devastating intimate moments. Capacity established the group as critical darlings in 2017 and presented an even more all-encompassing picture of Lenker’s range and prolificacy as a writer with tracks like the sepia-toned piano ballad “Mary”. The cerebral and intricate U.F.O.F. and the looser, more Americana-focused Two Hands came back-to-back in 2019, heralding a more collaborative approach to writing and arrangement. After 2022’s playful, genre-bending double album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, it seemed there were no creative inroads the band were too timid to explore.