Big Thief returns with the long awaited release Double Infinity—an album that strikes a delicate balance between sadness and groove. It is abstract yet laid-back, weaving together themes of the body, mother nature, and earth.
Building on their previous album Dragon New Warm Mountain I believe You, which expanded across twenty tracks, Double Infinity is a more meditative record, focusing on natural imagery and the circle of time and life. Currently, the band consists of Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia, with this album marking their first release since bassist Max Oleartchik’s departure.
The record opens with ‘Incomprehensible’, a catchy track despite its solemn themes. The song carries a mystical melody that sets the tone for the album’s wider reflections.
It confronts the fear of ageing that women inherit from social conditioning: “I’m afraid of getting older, that’s what I’ve learnt to say / society has given me the words to think that way”.
Later, it shifts this into a meditation on motherhood, lineage and care: “I’m mothering my grandmother, my great grandmother too”.
On ‘Words’, Big Thief leans into elemental imagery —fire, oxygen, breath—to capture intimacy and dependence on another person. Dissolving the boundaries between self and other, Lenker sings “I feel you breathing it’s subconscious” and later declares, “Now I’m higher than I’ve ever been”, explaining the natural high of the connection.
‘Los Angeles’ follows with simple guitar strumming that feels cosy and crisp. It continues the theme of unity beyond time and space, with lyrics like “But I know you without looking / You call, we come together / Even without speaking”. The song acknowledges imperfection in relationships in the lines “And there is so much that I wish I could’ve done for you somehow” but celebrates togetherness as eternal — an idea reflected in the album art’s cosmic imagery and the title itself, Double Infinity.
‘All Night All Day’ takes a different turn, embracing sexuality and desire in a playful, liberating tune as Lenker sings, “All night all day, I could go down on you”.
Its catchy rhythm makes it feel like a bedroom dance, whilst exploring deeper themes of pleasure and love as intertwined forces.
The title track is perhaps the album’s emotional core. It captures the grief of holding onto the past while trying to embrace the present: “In the arms of the one I love /
Still seeing pictures of another from the future or the past”. Time here is layered, non-linear, with memory and longing folding into one another. Yet there is also hope: “The butterflies on the summer breeze / The wildflowers sway with ease / At the bridge of two infinities”. Nature grounds the song in renewal, suggesting beauty persists even in sadness.
Track six, ‘Grandmother’ (featuring Laraaji), explores the ambiguity of human experience — joy and pain, insanity and love — and transforming these into art: “We’re all insane / We are made of love / We are also made of pain”. It is an ode to the connection between earth and humanity, appreciating how nature reflects human experience: “I saw sun through the clouds / I saw love through the pain.” When Lenker sings “The sky broke, it started to rain”, it becomes a metaphor for identity and spiritual awareness.
The outro, ‘How Could I have Known’, returns to imagery of nature and space. “You reminded me of the river / With your eyes both green and blue”. Sustaining Big Thief’s Sad Girl Anthem trope, Lenker sings of standing before the Eiffel Tower, feeling “empty power”, contrasting the grandeur of the monument with inner emptiness. By the end, she retreats to the permanence of love: “They say everything lives and dies / But our love will live forever”. It is a poignant ending, transforming the messiness of human nature into something transcendent.
Once again, Big Thief affirms their place as one of the most earnest voices in modern indie rock, with a transitional record that carries listeners from late summer into autumn.
Double Infinity may take a few listens to fully settle, but its layered reflections on love, ageing, and renewal create an album both deeply intimate and cosmic.
Words by Grace (Culhane) Rodulfo
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