Description
Label Review.
2019 album also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Brooklyn indie-folk band Big Thief are releasing their highly anticipated third album ‘U.F.O.F’. and their first on 4AD. The second 'F' in the record's title stands for friend, a sentiment which front person Adrianne Lenker elaborated on in a press release: “Making friends with the unknown… All my songs are about this. If the nature of life is change and impermanence, I’d rather be uncomfortably awake in that truth than lost in denial.”
Big Thief’s last album, ‘Capacity’ was released in 2017 but its members have kept plenty busy since then. Last year, they put out a 30-minute sound collage called ‘Wide Winged Bird’ and the band leader Adrianne Lenker released a solo full-length ‘Abysskiss’ as did guitarist Buck Meek.
‘U.F.O.F.’ was recorded in rural western Washington at Bear Creek Studios in a large cabin-like room, the band set up their gear to track live with engineer Dom Monks and producer Andrew Sarlo, who was also behind their previous albums. Having already lived these songs on tour, they were relaxed and ready to experiment. The raw material came quickly. Some songs were written only hours before recording and stretched out instantly, first take, vocals and all.
Despite taking the leap from the tender Midwestern traditions of indie label Saddle Creek to 4AD, the international label known for manufacturing the extremely large sounds of dream pop, the Adrianne Lenker–led four-piece sound as soothing as ever on the record’s first preview, the three-minute near-title-track “UFOF.” What it lacks in the department of immediate emotional impact perfected on Capacity, it makes up for in dreamy speculation—perhaps even extraterrestrial intrigue.