Hi, everyone. Ithony Seetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Big Thief album, Double Infinity.

Here we have the sixth full-length LP from one of the biggest indie darling acts out there today, Big Thief. A New York band who has been on quite the run since the turn of the 2020s. Not to completely discount the band's early days because you certainly have to be doing something to drop your debut on Saddle Creek Records and then graduate to the legendary 4AD in a matter of a few years. Plus, those first couple of albums seem to be aging like fine wine among the band's hard core fans anyway.

But personally, I wasn't really converted to a Big Thief believer until their 2019 record, Two Hands, which was the second album they dropped in that year, and one where they really leaned into their indie folk and Americana influences, which was a move that really allowed frontwoman Adraenne Lenker's songwriting to shine in a more barebones state. Not to mention these stunning and raw vocal performances all over this record, too, whether you're talking about how expressive and overcome with emotion the singing is on "Forgotten Eyes", or the gentle croons and oddly beautiful vibrato of the title track.

But like many artists around this point in time, Big Thief's output and progression was also hindered a bit by the pandemic. However, they still managed to grow and gain ground as a group. In 2020, Adrienne herself managed to make some waves with her solo songs record, which was excellent. And when we did eventually get a new Big Thief LP, it came in the form of 2022's massive Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, which was a 90-minute monster of an LP, maybe as large as it was due to a backlog of material.

Still, even with so much to go through, it managed to be a fantastic listen with the band's most rustic and folksy material to date, with a handful of experimental rocking and dreamy detours to keep the overall flow of this thing versatile and interesting. So yes, it is a big listen, but a highly rewarding one, in my opinion, if you take the time to do it or break it up into chunks.

But even with this very big big, critically acclaimed win under their belts, Big Thief has remained active, touring, writing, building a very intense and passionate fandom, which can be seen all over the internet, even on platforms like TikTok, where in the fall of 2023, you had listeners crashing out over a released studio version of the song "Vampire Empire" that didn't exactly resemble earlier iterations of fans were already familiar with. That is a song that also landed on Adrianne's 2024 solo LP Bright Future, arguably Adrianne's strongest crop of solo tunes to date.

It's at this point that I say few bands, in the course of time that Big Thief has been around, have been able to build up the same amount of momentum and excitement. 2025 marks what I think is now 10 years together as a band as well. So all the more reason to be excited for their next offering over here, Double Infinity, which when I first saw this record, I was hit with two pretty significant pieces of information.

One, it is a nine-track album with 42 minutes of run time. Definitely not another sprawling Dragon New War Mountain type experience, which is fine. I think a whole catalog of 90-minute albums in Big Thief's writing style would get old after a while.

But then we also had a lead single named "Incomprehensible", the opening track of this record, which, in my opinion, is not a mind-blowing track, to put it lightly. You see, Big Thief has about several different musical modes, and this track is not one of my favorite of them. This loose, spacy, indie rock with very repetitive lyrics. Everything instrumentally and sonically feels like a half measure, even Adrian's vocal delivery to an extent. Again, I know this is something the band has dabbled in more on previous releases like UFOF, and it is a direction that some fans for sure appreciate. Maybe with this record, Big Thief would be circling back to hallowed ground, doing something potentially familiar or easier, given that they've recently scaled back to just a trio now. I don't know.

Going into the album, I was sure it was going to be a solid listen, even if it wasn't going to be for me as much as their other recent works have been. But going deeper into the record here, I don't know. It feels like something's up. Because not only do the opening moments of "Words" sound like a royalty-free, acoustic rock piece, but the grinding guitar harmonics and solos that drown out nearly everything else just before the midpoint of the track sound horrendous. Is the band trying to make the track unlistenable?

And while the following song, "Los Angeles", is for sure a step up, it's just really a jammy folk rock piece with a tiny bit of psychedelic effects in the mix. I don't really mind the vibe of it for sure, but the songwriting itself feels like it's just meandering like a run-on sentence. Adrianne has certainly written more pointed songs in the past.

The next two tracks in the tracklist were honestly the only two songs on the record I absolutely positively loved: "All Night, All Day" and the title track, both of which are packed with lyrics that showcase a lot of love and gratitude, which clearly inspires a bit more fire as far as the singing and writing is concerned. I would even say the former of the two songs here has maybe a bit more pop appeal than your average Big Thief song, with the melodies being pretty snappy and direct, and also the vocal harmonies on this track whihc are just so sweet and so killer.

Going deeper into the album, "Happy With You" as well as "No Fear", are both two listenable cuts, but again, lyrically, are two of the most repetitive and mind-numbing numbers the band has written as of late. Once again, just feels like the band is jamming on these nondescript, lightweight psych rock-isms, and don't really progress them into anything significant or memorable.

And while I was surprised to see a feature from ambient music music legend Laraaji in the mix [on "Grandmother"], certainly an underrated figure in his own right, I just didn't really find whatever additions are being added to the music here as, I don't know, bringing that much weight to them, be it the synthesizers or sound effects in the mix, or the very, very odd background vocals that just throw the momentum of the track off entirely. And beyond that, we have a pretty forgettable closing track.

I don't know, I'm shocked. I did not think this album would be as overwhelming as it was, even with me not really being crazy about "Incomprehensible". Again, given that releases in the band's back catalog have been a little hit or miss for me, this may just be a project that more long-time fans enjoy much more than I do.

But yeah, I have to say I'm just really not getting that much out of it as I just don't find Adrian's writing to be as sharp or as pointed as it has been as of late. I much prefer hearing the band's talents manifest themselves in these very plucky and bold and rustic folk and Americana tunes, as opposed to the nondescript psych and indie rock that we're getting here, which is why I'm feeling about a light 5 on this new album.

Anthony Fantano, Big Thief, Forever.