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Big Thief is an extremely prolific band. They put out two full-length studio records in 2019 that feel like distinct worlds, different eras of their sound. Adrianne Lenker released her solo project songs and instrumentals (2020) last year, a quietly devastating album made entirely in a remote cabin somewhere. Buck Meek’s Two Saviors (2021) followed, eleven Americana and country songs. Now, we’re receiving a string of new singles and an announcement of a double LP coming down the pipeline. Frank Ocean could never.
These singles sound more bright and less pensive than their previous work, but the lyrics reveal some questioning:
My certainty is wild, weaving
For you, I am a child, believing
You lay beside me sleeping on a plain
In the future
The band recorded it during a power outage, outside in the rain, using equipment rigged up to a cigarette lighter. This kind of creative process is only possible with a lot of trust and time, as well as a shared ethos regarding the “right way” to make music. Adrianne Lenker certainly experiments with form and style; her solo work is mostly made up of songs that meander and spin around lyrical motifs and instrumental patterns without regard for convention. Her longtime partnership with Buck Meek is surely complicated, but quite fruitful; they’ve been performing together for at least ten years, using their own experiences as a duo and, at one point, a couple, as fodder for their songs.
The new Hand Habits record is brilliant, a testament to both solitude and collaboration. It’s a pandemic album, the result of introspection as Meg Duffy started going to therapy. SASAMI and Christian Lee Hutson, two of my favorite people producing today worked it. SASAMI provides rich lower harmonies on a few of the tracks, lending her gruff alto tone to the otherwise soft vocal performances. Christian Lee Hutson’s style of guitar is so distinctive; Phoebe Bridgers’ “Halloween” and “The Answer” on this album are sonic siblings, held together by the connective tissue of Hutson’s fingerpicking.
Meg Duffy is a treasure. They currently play guitar in Perfume Genius’ touring band and work with a wide array of artists, like Kevin Morby, Flock of Dimes, and Weyes Blood. Their approach to their solo project is very influenced by their experience as a songwriter and performer for other bands; they like to “influence and be influenced.” This mentality has led to some wonderful features on different tracks, as well as some incredible work from Hand Habits and friends.
I recently watched the new Kacey Musgraves visual album for star-crossed (2021) and all I can say is it’s brilliant. The costuming! The casting! The choreography! Kacey brought in a genius team to construct a world around her dream, the beautiful byproduct of her horrific divorce. My only qualm with the whole thing is that my favorite song from the album, “hookup scene,” wasn’t featured. It’s understandable; this track is the only one that shows the bitter underside of such a triumphant record:
A pretty face
Might get you far
But still it can't replace
The kind of real connection that I crave
The kind we don't have anymore
And I get in my head
Analyzing what I had
It's a chapter that ain't coming back
I could have learned to love it more
There’s enough regret in this one song to balance out the rest of the album. It’s brave she can admit that despite everything wrong with her marriage, she misses what good she had. I love star-crossed for everything it is, but listening to this album on the heels of Golden Hour (2018) is almost too hard. How can we go on believing in love?
If you've got someone to love
And you've almost given up
Hold on tight
Despite, the way they make you mad
'Cause you might not even know that you don't have it so bad