Big Thief — Two Hands (ALBUM REVIEW)
By: John T. Dougherty
Tags: Music, Folk, Big Thief, Rock, Album Review

Two Hands (Image Credit: 4AD Records)

Dang. I told y’all this band was the real deal.

I seriously meant it when I said months ago that U.F.O.F. was the best thing to come out this year, and I stand by that statement. Even though I still enjoy and listen to the Brooklyn folk rock bands previous efforts, 2016’s Masterpiece and 2017’s Capacity, and I will acknowledge the highlights like the former’s title track and songs like “Shark Smile” and “Mary,” their third record released earlier this year felt like a complete listening experience, and what was so great about seeing the progress of the band is how much the four of them really play off each other really well with each new release.

Now, the big open secret that the band has is that, despite this latest record almost coming in late to 2019 after the massive critical success of U.F.O.F., Big Thief has been mastering these songs like for a few years now during live performances, as evident by their setlists over the past four years, and judging by the songs not on their records (like “Zombie”), they probably have another great record in the works already.

For now, however, yes, Two Hands is another showcase in the deeply personal, hard-hitting mastery that Big Thief has been able to. Not the near-masterpiece (no pun intended) that U.F.O.F. was, but it’s still pretty damn great. It’s another breezy, listenable folk rock record that demands you to pay attention the more you listen to it especially at the more intimate moments.

While it’s not really a commandment of songwriting and more of a default, making songs catchy seems to be what Big Thief is attempting more and while their songs have been like that (see previous songs like “Shark Smile,” “Cattails,” “Jenni,” and “Masterpiece”) , as evident in the first few tracks, such as the opener “Rock and Sing,” when lead singer Adrianne Lenker sings the chorus “cry with me” and “rock with me,” or even the plea for compassion and empathy in the track following up, “Forgotten Eyes.”

It’s not really a surprise that when the band gets dirty on their instrumentals, especially on the six-minute single “Not,” where Lenker shreds her guitar like peak-Neil Young-Crazy horse, you can forgive her for not playing straightforward solos because you’re so in-tuned to the music, and it helps that the drumming from James Krivchenia is straight-up banging. Or the previous song “Shoulders,” which has some sweet guitar leads and has been a fan favorite for a few years (both tracks are the heaviest on this record).

It’s also not a coincidence that, this being their second record on indie rock label 4AD records, also the same record label which put out the first four Red House Painters records in the 90s, that the band can do wonders when playing slow, as is the case with songs like “Rock and Sing,” “The Toy,” and the closer “Cut My Hair.”

What’s amazing about the less-than-four years that Big Thief has put out four great records is that despite some minor changes, the band has been consistent in their sounds and it’s clear that the four of them are so tight together and have fantastic chemistry that everything flows really well, making their four records repetitive on demand. Hipster Brooklyn music or not, millennial folk rock never sounded this good, and Two Hands is more than just a victory lap after their now classic record earlier this year.

Four and a half out of five stars. If you’re not on the hype train for this band, what the hell are you thinking?

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