November 16, 2021

Big Thief - "Time Escaping"


At long last, Big Thief have announced their highly-anticipated new album. It's called Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You and it's out in February.

After releasing two albums in 2019, Big Thief will return in 2022 with a double album compiled of twenty songs the band recorded in four different studios over four distinct recording sessions. The album includes the four singles already released this year as well as a new one, "Time Escaping," which was included with the record's announcement. Along with the new track, Adrienne Lenker shared the following:

"One of the things that bonds us together as a band is pure magic. I think we all have the same guide and none of us have ever spoken what it is because we couldn’t name it, but somehow, we are all going for the same thing, and when we hit it… we all know it’s it, but none of us to this day, or maybe ever, will be able to articulate in words what the 'it' is. Something about it is magic to me."

"Time Escaping" changes up the band's sound and breaks away from their warmer acoustic tones for something a bit more stark. This isn't anything we've heard them tackle before and it will be interesting to hear how these twenty songs flow together. The guitar sound is direct and isolated. On previous songs, the band feels like a tightly knit unit with everything balanced out amongst the group, each member carrying equal weight and keeping sounds fully in motion. Here, they still feel very much like that solid unit, but the balance is different. The percussion is an undercurrent to the synthetic guitar sound and drifts away from that lush acoustic vibe that has comprised the previous singles. Adrienne's vocals are as powerful as ever and more forward in the mix on this one and repeated listens will find more commonality even with such a shift. At this point, it seems as if the band has no limits. They're unafraid to tread new ground and welcome us all along to join on their remarkable journey.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is out February 11 via 4AD.

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