The hourglass of life looks beautiful through the lens of Double Infinity

By A&E Editor Navya Chitlur

“Incomprehensible / Incomprehensible / Incomprehensible, let me be,” croons Adrianne Lenker in the introduction of Big Thief’s newest album Double Infinity, singing about how simple existence is remarkable and incomprehensible. Released on September 5, the album is a nine-track album combining psychedelic, folk, and rock genres to create a raw and intimate atmosphere. With ballads encapsulating concepts of love, age, time, peace, and existence, the band creates an album personal and a reflection of themselves, but one that also falls flat in terms of musicality and lyricism. 

Throughout Double Infinity, Big Thief records the essence of humanity in all its beauty and serenity, similar to their previous albums, including Masterpiece (2016), and lead vocalist Adrianne Lenker’s solo album songs (2020). The tracks are tied together with Lenker’s poetic and masterful lyricism, soft vocals, and a level of rawness that stimulates intimacy with the listener. Lenker celebrates aging and the beauty of life through her lyrics, depicting time as the album’s thematic root. She sings during “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.” The song’s lyricism calls for an appreciation for humanity’s ability to age — something often condemned to be ugly — as Lenker celebrates her flowing gray hair and her ancestors, representative of the cycle of life and human nature. Throughout the album, Lenker returns to the concept of time, with the revolutionary and passionate message of holding out wonder and appreciation for aging, as well as for the pathways opened up by the passage of time. In the titular track “Double Infinity,” she sings, “At the bridge of two infinities / What is forming, what is fading’” showing another side to the concept of time — how it changes to open and close doors throughout a lifetime. Lenker’s soft vocals throughout the album  sets a perfect sun-basking mood, emphasizing  weighty themes with featherlight tones, and highlighting the simplicity of happiness despite the layers that fall under it. In addition to time, Double Infinity also celebrates love and joy at its base level. Lenker dedicates “All Night, All Day,” to her girlfriend, singing of the happiness and love she finds in her. The lyricism in this song is incredible, with lines like “God is good / Or whatever made the mouth,” crafting an atmosphere of utmost devotion and praise for her lover. In an interview with The i Paper, Lenker describes how the song came to her naturally, which works in compliance with the rest of the album’s feeling of natural bliss and love, as well as deeply personal and raw tones. 

Additionally, in contrast to previous works such as Lenker’s solo album songs, Double Infinity focuses less on the imagery and poetic aspect of the lyricism and more on the stripped down rock and roll sonic feeling. Repetitive lyrics in this album highlight the themes and overall concepts well, and though it is well done, it fails to live up to its predecessors — projects that tend to concentrate heavily on poetic elements. For example, in “anything,” from songs, Lenker’s lyricism showcases the extent of her talents, with lines like “Weren’t we the salt in the sea? / Dragon in the new warm mountain / Didn’t you believe in me?” which include otherworldly and nature-based imagery, describing the intended themes with as much accuracy as in Double Infinity, just with better lyricism. Moreover, throughout songs, Lenker uses poetic elements such as reductive repetition that make the songs addicting and perfectly flowing. These elements are missing in Double Infinity, where, although the imagery hits the mark in several songs, the album as a whole does not place a strong emphasis on the band’s lyrical abilities. The addictive feeling in the band’s discography is lost in this album because of the repetitive drum beats and lack of memorable lyricism.

Throughout Double Infinity, the production style also remains relatively flat, with basic, soft rock and roll drum beats in the background and Lenker’s vocals. Though this is similar to their previous works, the album’s tones don’t differ between tracks, leading to the songs blending into each other, and without the lyricism setting songs apart, this makes the album repetitive and dull. However, this comes with the exception of two songs: adding a layer of complexity to the album and offering respite from the repetitive drum beats, the songs “Happy With You” and “No Fear” have similar roles as album interludes. During “Happy With You,” a more upbeat track, Lenker allows the lyricism to take a backseat, and instead repeats the lines “Happy With you,” and “Poison shame,” interrupted by the occasional “Why do I need to explain myself?” Additionally, with the “Poison shame,” lyric being derived from the song “All Night, All Day,” the song is able to tie the album together lyrically, in addition to emphasizing the simplistic happy feeling encompassing the album in its repetition of “Happy With you.” Then, in “No Fear,” Big Thief lays back on the production and sonic reception of the song, repeating the chorus  over quiet and simplistic background beats. The track’s quietness and simplicity gives way for a meditative and reflective feeling, and its stark contrast with the rest of the album allows it to exist as another interlude-like song, where attention is immediately drawn to the lyrics and imagery and not overshadowed by the sonic background. While both songs match the theme of the album and are perfect for splitting up lyric-heavy songs and tracks with repetitive, similar production, having two interlude-like songs in a nine track long album seems somewhat like a lackluster move.

On the other hand, the production in this album has developed greatly from their previous works as the band shifts from a raw background instrumental to a more psychedelic and technology-based instrumental. While most of the songs follow production styles similar to their previous works, the highlight of the album — “Grandmother” — which features multi-instrumentalist Laraaji, is an example of them breaking this barrier and experimenting with a new sound. Laraaji is known for being a pioneer for multi-instrumentalist, mystic, atmospheric, and ambient music, and skilled with incorporating spiritual tunes through different instruments in his decades-long discography. The psychedelic atmosphere introduced in the album’s intro song “Incomprehensible” is continued in “Grandmother,” due to Laraaji’s impressive, addicting, and immersive background vocals. “Grandmother” highlights Laraaji’s soft vocals, contrasting them from the harsher drum beats, emphasizing the liveliness and free-spirited feeling of rock music. “The earth is rock and roll, and so are our bodies,” Lenker said on an Instagram post in description of the song’s inspiration and summary. The song repeats the lines, “Gonna turn it all into rock and roll,” in Lenker’s trademark soft, and honey-like voice, signifying rock and roll not as a genre but as a way of life, as a way of happiness and joy. The track is a key feature in the album, serving to tie together the album’s soft rock and roll production style with the new, more atmospheric sound, mixing the raw and psychedelic production styles together. 

Furthermore, the track “Grandmother,” as well as snippets of other tracks, like “Incomprehensible,” makes sense of the album cover: a green lime with peels surrounding it. Despite it lacking the artistic ability and raw photographic feel as their previous albums that encompass the band’s style, Big Thief still paints a cover that reflects the uniqueness and queerness of their music, but in a new fashion. The new album cover looks more tech-based and digitally rendered — a translation of the evolution of their music from raw to more experimentation with production. With the introduction of atmospheric and immersive music into their trademark raw style with distinctive instruments, the album cover is reflective of the new era of music that Big Thief is entering, debuted with Double Infinity. 

Throughout Big Thief’s masterfully developed Double Infinity, the band ties the motif of time into messages of love and joy in a serene and scenic celebration of humanity. By beautifying generally unconventional topics — such as aging and queerness — Double Infinity is more than just an album, it’s a statement. It’s a statement about humanity at its base level, full of plain, simple, no-strings-attached love and joy. The band explores new territory, experimenting with a production-heavy sound laden with psychedelic tones while still keeping their trademark stripped sound, maintaining a perfect balance of their strengths and new experimentation. However, while Big Thief is known for their exceptional lyricism, the album fails to match their previous works in the category, though the themes and imagery portrayed throughout the album makes it addicting and an inviting, heartwarming listen.