I was hyping Emperor of Sand a lot when it dropped, thought it was the best of their more alternative metal efforts (despite Show Yourself). Saw them on that tour, it was an absolute killer of a concert. But the more time passes, the more I agree with your view. I still like it a lot, it's got Sultan's Curse and Roots Remain, which are some of my favourite "mellow Mastodon" era songs, but overall it lacks diversity and innovation imo. Also goes way too much in the epic poppy chorus things, like you said Merc. I'm really glad Repo loves it though, at least I'm not alone 😁 _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
I was hyping Emperor of Sand a lot when it dropped, thought it was the best of their more alternative metal efforts (despite Show Yourself). Saw them on that tour, it was an absolute killer of a concert. But the more time passes, the more I agree with your view. I still like it a lot, it's got Sultan's Curse and Roots Remain, which are some of my favourite "mellow Mastodon" era songs, but overall it lacks diversity and innovation imo. Also goes way too much in the epic poppy chorus things, like you said Merc. I'm really glad Repo loves it though, at least I'm not alone :D
I love seeing that my friends get a lot out of this album, and, again, i like it as well. Just less than any other Mastodon album (including, as you will soon see, their 8th album released in 2021.). _________________ -Ryan
This album actually represents perhaps the most radical and major change in style and sound and presentation from album to album in Mastodon’s history. The change from Leviathan to Blood Mountain was pretty huge and that switch-up may be the only competition. For this LP Mastodon did indeed delve into sounds and things that they never had. The most obvious thing is this being their first double album. Also, the prevalence of long guitar solos is pretty new, the several absolutely soft and mournful bluesy jams here, the presence on several tracks of choral parts that make it sound almost like a symphonic-ish album with attendant atmosphere, and there is even a track with some sort of world music bones to it (I wish I knew more about what various folk music sounds like in parts of the world, but I’m talking about the song here called “Dagger” and I think that is some African or maybe Middle Eastern sound…?).
All in all I think that Mastodon nailed it with this album and all these new developments. At 86 minutes it is perhaps a bit longer than I would prefer. But they use this albums length to flesh out a lot of cool new directions and a lot of emotionally moving and brilliant guitar work in particular. For the first time I think a Mastodon album gets a co-MVP in not only Brann Dailor on drums but ALSO the consistently beautiful guitar work and solos from guitarists Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds, as well as a brilliant guest solo from Kim Thayil on perhaps the most mellow (and moving) track here “Had It All. The interplay between the usual brilliant, thunderous riff work and the ample and varied solos as well as the usual and as-exp[ected excellence of the drum work, just kills throughout the entire length of this epic album.
Some of the track stand outs are, for me after a few listens, the opening 1-2 punch of “Pain With An Anchor” and “The Crux” (the former of which absolutely crushes and crunches and sounds heavy and excellent, the latter of which has a pretty unique for Mastodon melody and a huge chorus that works really really well and of course a badass solo), the low key and very soulful “The Beast”, the guitar heroics of “Teardrinker”, the mournful and beautiful “Had It All”, the quite brutal at times and just all around metal-magic of “Savage Lands”, the blues rocky soloing on "Skeleton of Splendor", and the closing track “Gigantium” is also kick ass as well. But, really, this album is impressively consistent and just a really good experience.
Does this album really truly kick nearly as much ass as Remission or Leviathan or Blood Mountain? No, not at all. Is it nearly as progressively mind bending and awe-inspiring as Crack the Sky or Blood Mountain? No, not close. Is it as catchy and fun as Once More ‘Round the Sun? Again, nope. But this album carves out its own place in the amazing discog of Mastodon by being uniquely emotional, loose, and moving. The variety of this album is cool, but the real strength of this album is that it is an 86 minute tour-de-force of metal and hard rock, taking you low with some really sorrowful ballads and high with some intensely hardcore metal crescendos. The entire run time of this I at least enjoy and at most adore.
So, this is really good. REALLY good. Not sure it matches up with the first 4 albums nor quite the same level as Once More Round The Sun. But this is a great new direction for these legends.
I give this 4 emojis... lets see, what shall be the arrangement of emojis.... This! 😈😈😈🤬 (3 twisted, 1 evil, pretty fucking fantastic if you ask me.
-----------
My (FINAL) ranking of Mastodon's albums so far:
#1 - Leviathan (2004)- 9.6/10
#2 - Crack the Skye (2009)- 9.6/10
#3 - Once More 'Round The Sun (2014)- 9.1/10
#4 - Remission (2002) - 9.1/10
#5 - Blood Mountain (2006) - 9/10
#6 - Hushed and Grim (2021) - 8.5
#7 - The Hunter (2011)- 8/10
#8- Emperor of Sand (2017) - 6.8/10
-------------------
In closing, I know there are some early EPs I still need to check out and I think I will do that. For now I feel pretty great delving into this near-peerless metal bands' discog. These 8 albums represent one of the most impressive bodies of work I have checked out. It ws a pleasure spending 20-25 hours with these 4 dudes from Atlanta. They just have made some of the most hardcore, passionate, energized, inspired and inspiring metal music and they have been doing so consistently, through the good and bad times, for over 20 years! Amazing and my hat is off to them.
Thanks to you who have read and commented. Its been a great time. I would love to see your rankings of the LPs you have heard from Mastodon. Also I'd love to know how you feel this discography holds up to other )somewhat) similar metal bands like Neurosis or Isis or Metallica or whatrever.
For now, so long, my friends. _________________ -Ryan
Okay, NOW I can get started on this Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and one other solo album project! The original idea was to give myself time to cover these 10 or so albums before the much anticipated release of the new double album extravaganza from Big Thief coming on February 11th. However, oh boy, I ONLY LEFT MYSELF 8.5 DAYS!!! Well, as Logan Nine Fingers would say If something needs doing, its best to do it rather than to live with the fear of it. So... soon I shall embark upon this. The syllabus so to speak of this will be as follows (chronological):
Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker A Sides/B Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek
Masterpiece (2016) by Big Thief
Capacity (2017) by Big Thief
Buck Meek (2018) by Buck Meek
Abysskiss (2018) by Adrianne Lenker
U.F.O.F. (2019) by Big Thief
Two Hands (2019) by Big Thief
A New Found Relaxation (2020) by James Krivchenia
Instrumentals (2020) by Adrianne Lenker
Songs (2020) by Adrianne Lenker
Two Saviors (2021) by Buck Meek
and then, finally...
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (2022) by Big Thief
So, yeah a lot of listening. As of now I consider Songs to be one of the greatest albums ever made. I like all I have heard from these albums but I am wondering if any of them will ever remotely match or be in the same tier as Lenker's Songs. We shall see. I doubt I'll be quite as wordy as usual or as I was with Mastodon with these albums. At the same time I don't wanna rush through. let's see how this goes or if this goes at all. _________________ -Ryan
Lenker and Meek and Big Thief and...Krivchenia(?)........ OH MY!
And here begins this big Big Thief listening "project". I love Lenker. I think she is perhaps the greatest or one of the greatest songwriters of this generation. I love Big Thief and feel they subtly manage to be gorgeous and also quite weird and unorthodox within the Folk rock and indie rock landscape. And they have an album dropping soon and it is BY FAR my most anticipated upcoming album by a mile (and there are some great ones coming from Mitski and Black Country New Road etc etc that I am also excited for.)
So, now that I have finished that Mastodon chrono listen (which was incredible) I figure this is a good next place to go. Starting with...
Adrianne Lenker's "First" solo album, Hours Were The Birds (2013)
The reason quotation marks with the word “first” is because she released and album when she was 13 or 15 (forget which, she was young) and I can’t find that to hear. Reminds me a bit of Bjork's real debut being in the 1990s and Emmylou's first album being in the 70's (and not really considering their teen albums as their debuts). Also, I don’t wanna hear it that much. I respect Lenker’s work too much to hear her as a child. Who knows, perhaps its excellent. I may never know.
My thoughts on this album may be less, but I wanted to mention that Adrianne is an interesting person. She won 3 state championships in Karate as a teen. She also didn’t attend high school but studied for and got her GED at 16 before going to Berklee music school. All just random shit on Wiki. But all these facts are fascinating. She also is a Midwesterner, which perhaps helps me relate to her more than some. A stretch, but sometimes it is like that. Anyway, where were we…?
Oh yes, this album here is really really good. I have no joke listened to it 6 times today. It’s a trim, 30 minute folk singer/songwriter album. At first I felt it was good enough, if a bit unoriginal. Then as I listened more I enjoyed it more and more. Even in her early twenties, it was already clear Lenker was a hell of a songwriter. The subject matter is all tied up in romantic longing and nostalgia for her life and it all seems quite personal. The music is almost entirely voice and guitar.
It's kind of a trip listening to this because its so different from her 2020 album despite being almost exactly the same stylistically and instrumentally. There is a yearning, bright-eyed optimism in these songs that are not there with her classic a few years later. Also she hadn’t yet found her voice, as either a singer and vocally but also as a songwriter. The vocals on all the Big Thief and later solo stuff I have heard has a strange, almost keening or somewhat *off* sound to them, which I adore and I came to recognize as Lenker’s sound and style. But on this album the vocals are quite clean and plaintive and not unusual at all. Not bad either by any means, just not distinctively and wholly her own. And, in terms of songwriting, these are mostly quite well written if familiar. There are several points here that sound like Dylan or Springsteen or Kristofferson lines all about moving around and not having a clear home. There is an old timey, and perhaps a bit too cutesy, waltz to close the album, and there is just a general vibe of this being a showcase or a sampler of what Lenker is capable of, as opposed to a unified or fully actualized musical statement.
But, it should be stressed, I do really like this. Its not a new fave. But a few songs really REALLY hit the mark and are just absolutely excellent melodically, lyrically and structurally. These standouts for me are “Gone”, “Steamboat” (what a great chorus and goes in directions I don't expect), “Lighthouse” and “Snow Song” (this was amazing today as it snowed all day in Missouri... it feels like the perfect holiday song, wintery and lonesome and simple and amazing). As I listen yet again now, this album continues to grow on me and even the lesser songs to my ears are starting to feel warm and welcoming and I better be careful because if I listen more I may start thinking this is great.
Overall, this is an rock-solid and sincere album and a good way to start this Big Thief and affiliated listening Project. If I were to give this a rating… let’s see… 7.4/10 feels right. _________________ -Ryan
From the first seconds of the opening track “Jonathan”, I felt like I was in folk heaven. There is a warmth, a tender and sincere love, a beautiful sense of joy and collaboration on this little 21 minute EP. This has been on repeat for hours, and it is still so sweet and has lost none of its luster after half a dozen spins. The only thing, truly, keeping this from a 10/10 project is the relative dip in subjective enjoyment on the final couple (still quite nice) tracks, “Yuki Onna” and “I Still Hear You”. But, I am being honest when I tell you that tracks 1 through 5 absolutely floor me. The fact that this is just a little EP thrown together as a result of the connection between Lenker and Meek just before they got married and just before they formed Big Thief is stunning. There is an unfinished and off-the-cuff, creation-for-creation’s-sake atmosphere here. And you can almost here the smiles and winks that are being exchanged as these two musicians hit that sweet harmony or watch each other pull off some cool acoustic folk guitar lick. Its wonderous.
The opener is a short, 2 minute, folk gem, and instantly I can hear personally that Lenker genius developing in record time. Her voice is getting into its unique, wholly-her-own sound, and the songwriting is so crisp and tender and to-the-point. The harmonies on this track are amazing. A great example of 2 not great singers (one is very good and one is sort of a folk, Dylan-y intentional unclean thing) combining to create a perfect jigsaw mix.
The track “Money” is great and all, but on the final verse there is a musical shift and the whole giddy, loving happiness comes tumbling out and this last verse just pushes this already great tune to new heights. Then ”Kerina” another great folk jam, perhaps not as personally memorable as the first 2, but still excellent and even the “lesser” tracks here are imbued with that love and that humane, brittle beauty.
“Miss Misty” is the first of 2 tracks of these 7 that feature Buck Meek on lead vocal with Lenker peppering in some sweet sweeeeet harmonies. This song is perhaps my favorite of the EP. There is a moody, cool, contemplative, soul-deep beauty on display with this track and Buick absolutely kills it on lead vocals. I don’t remember many or any Buck lead vocals in Big Thief. This makes me sad if this is never returned to. Because, although Lenker is the main star and the best of the best, it helps to spice it up a bit especially when the songs and performances are as perfect as this.
Then track 5 is a track which is on Lenker’s debut, called “Indiana” and something about the more hushed and personal performance here and something about how the harmonies work and the duel guitars, all these factors make me adore this version considerably more than the one on Hours Is The Birds. Its good there, its great here.
And as already mentioned this album ends with 2 more low key and slower and still quite gorgeous and tender tracks. Especially love the pure romance and love on display on the closing track “I Still Hear You” and now that I listen to it now, I take back what I said about this being a relative lesser track here. Its actually quite stunning and super subtle and a beautiful way to end this EP.
Overall, this is great! These 2 should start a band! Lol. But I will say this style, this direct and unadulterated Folk is quite nice and very very different in many ways from the debut Big Thief album released just over a year later. I love the folk ROCK sound of Big Thief. But this EP is quickly becoming one of my fave EPs and I hope that, as I listen to further Meek/Lenker and Big Thief records, there are at least glimpses back at this sound.
Overall, again not a 10, also I give it a little bit of a de-boost in rating due to it being an EP, so my rating for this first half, this A Sides of this pre-Big Thief Lenker/Meek collab is…drum roll… 9.1/10 – in other words this is marvelous.
-------------
This is also damn fine! As for general personal enjoyment, this is a step down from A-Sides, BUT some of these songs are absolute empathy-enflaming-masterworks. Namely, the opner “Angels” is one of the most touching songs I’ve heard in a long time. This track captures that lost, feeble, overwhelmed feeling of a child looking at a world so big and so confused. It’s heartbreakingly touching and sad, while still maintaining a vertain gorgeous and glistening youthful hope. The refrain about hoping angels can hear her, but how it sometimes it feels like nobody’s listening… jesus. This makes me cry and may be the best song on these 2 EPs.
Other stand outs are the very Dylan-esque in theme, almost modernization of the Minnesota kid coming to NYC track “New York City.” – also it must be said that I adore Lenker and while she is no Dylan in my mind (yet) it is cool and kind of wild that Lenker and Dylan share certain similarities in background, separated by 50 years… gorgeous and wonderous the world can be ?…
And finally, the closing track “Wallet”, the one song sang by Meek is quite beautiful. It has that old school Greenwich village ish mix of blues and folk and down-on-your-luck outlaw sorta kinda vibe. Also, the very poetic and understated song “A Better Time to Meet” is awesome. Can you tell I love this stuff?
There is a part at the end of “A Better Time To Meet” when you can hear Adrianne talking quietly to Buck and that shifts seamlessly to the beginning of the next track “Carolina” when she asks “Can I try this?” and Buck says “sure” and I don’t know why I love that little moment so much, it just puts me into this recording, like I’m there sharing in this little collab. The song itself, “Carolina” is pretty as well.
Lenker’s vocals shine on this collection more than ever. She really owns this material and gets into the old timey vocal details and the high pitched notes are all nailed gorgeously. I still prefer the vocal sounds of her later work, when she embraced that idiosyncratic delivery she has, but this is also quite mesmerizing. For an example of what I mean with this showy and beautiful vocal delivery, listen to the chorus of “New York City”, its awesome.
I will say the thing that kept coming to mind that I missed was simply the harmonizing. The coolest and warmest and best parts of the first EP A-Sides was the loving, tender harmony work between these 2. I am not sure why that was stripped completely off this one. Perhaps this is just meant to be the flip side, another angle on this fruitful collab, but still its missed. The songs are just as good or right there in the same range at least. The music is the same acoustic guitars and vocals and … that is it. I love that sound and the way they execute it and the way they flesh out these tunes with such an austere presentation is impressive and a testament to these 2’s talent.
Overall, I love this. A solid 8.1/10. This 8/10 alongside the 9.1 of the first one, and combined into what comes to a proper album length, makes this legitimately OVERALL chart-level stuff for me personally. If I were to listen to these back-to-back as an album (there is indeed a compilation called A-Sides and Besides which I believe is just that) I think this may be one of the best folk albums I’ve heard. It felt like coming home to my musical roots. I feel like this is still probably my favorite, go-to, “style” of music. Simple, folky, well-written expression of human stuff like love and sadness and self-reflective and romantic. This was amazing. I am kind of in love.
-------------
Rankings of sorts for all these disparate albums and projects so far:
#1 A-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 9.1/10
#2 B-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.1/10
#3 Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.5/10 _________________ -Ryan
Where do I even start with this album? It represents such a massive shift in the sound of Lenker, the beginning of the band that would come to be her most well-known musical outlet, it indicates a distinct leveling-up in the power of her songwriting, and this is the first time I have heard that iconic (for me in my head canon) Adrianne Lenker voice. This is just a badass statement of a debut. And while it was cute and a bit funny and audacious to name their debut Masterpiece, it nearly lives up to the title.
After the cold open of sorts of the opning track “Little Arrow” we are thrust into the exhilarating and resounding triumph of a song called “Masterpiece”. Everything about this track is killer. The vocals sound like some fiery modern Lucinda Williams, the stomp of the loud drums and guitars is all that rock should be, and that fucking chorus! The lyrics and the way they morph in meeting and the way they so beautifully wrap around the melody and the breathy vocal delivery of this new Lenker we are being introduced to… etc… its awesome, every second of it is awesome from the opening chords, to the dirty feedback solo, to its resounding end. This song is such a moment, it is when you have to stop and take notice of these new young guns and shut up and listen. This is also the best song Lenker has written up to this point.
The fact that the album consistently flows from track to track, some purely indie rock bliss with noisy rock riffs to soft and folky ruminative tracks to beautiful indie pop numbers that reminds me of Beach House (without all the layers of dream pop) or Broken Social Scene, and does it with almost no hiccups or stumbles is brilliant.
Of course there are some small gripes I have. Starting with small things that always slightly annoy me, such as the opening one note explosion of the solo of “Real Love” which is just toooo much and doesn’t work (before getting back on track with a great remainder of solo), to the overly long and annoying little baby saying car and truck over and over at the end of “Interstate”. The only more macro critique is hardly a critique for me anyway (because I don’t value extreme originality) is that this great band hadn’t yet found that utterly unique Big Thief sound yet and much of the songs here, including the best ones done excellently, are quite familiar sounding. By the time they get to 2019’s 2 LPs they had carved out a truly unique sound. But I am not sure those albums are BETTER than this one (we shall see soon enough), its just that they are more unorthodox.
The star of the show her is the ragged, stalwart beauty of Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting, singing and general persona. How she managed to switch gears so fully from her Folk confessional singer/songwriter aesthetic to the fiery, rocker who forces you to hand on to every word in the middle of some deriously stomping rock tunes, baffles me. She is a chameleon and absurdly talented. The lyrics all over this thing are consistently biting, minimalisticly heartbreaking and I feel like she really made her best written album with this one. I suppose having 3 others to play with helped the songwriting process or perhaps its just that this format allowed her to unveil this whole other side of her? I don’t know. Trying to explain the indescribable relatability and fragility and strength and beauty of the singing and songwriting here is like trying to catch gossamer in your hand. This shit is elusive and powerful.
The highlights are numerous, but the TOTAL show stoppers are brilliantly placed at the beginning (“Masterpiece”), middle (“Paul”) and end (“Parallels”)… with each standout track having other great songs of a variously constituted sound and style surrounding it. This album has a flow and a consistency that I love and it just seems (so far) endlessly relistenable.
The closer starts out good, but man when I say the build up to the chorus and the chorus itself is transcendent indie rock glory just know I mean it. Also when I mentioned Broken Social Scene earlier, that could possibly apply to more than just “Paul” but I am mostly talking about that tune. It sounds like something off BSS’s 2002 album You Forgot It In People.
As far as low points, well while I kind of get what they were going with that opening track “Little Arrow” as a sort of short, super low key and fragile introduction, I still think it’s the least special and quality sounding song here. Other than that, every song here bristles with a level of energy and passion and earthy power that makes every song fascinating and uplifting and thought-provoking and just awesome.
So far, Lenker’s discog is so fucking cool. She can rock and folk with the best of ‘em. Also this album makes me excited for all the music yet to come on this project, because I think with this 2016 album she really had found her voice as a vocalist and songwriter. This is the beginning of a new era methinks. Also the relationship between Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker and the resultant band seems to be getting more and more enmeshed. I think the whole band kicks ass here, but in particular one thing I never mentioned is the subtle harmonies between Meek and Lenker here is just as great, if more subtle, as on their A-Sides EP. And they seem to be one of those rare musical partnerships that just seem made for each other. Like Gram and Emmylou, or Guru and Premier, or other great ones. These 2 have some great music yet to come (as well as a divorce) I can already tell.
This gets a high rating, because I like it. I sometimes feel like I give too many glowing ratings. But then again the reason I pick these artists to listen to and explore is because I already KNOW I like their sound and this project just gives me a chance to really listen and listen a lot and let my thoughts blossom. With that in mind the rating for this near-masterpiece is …. 8.7/10
---------------------
Rankings of sorts for all these disparate albums and projects so far:
#1 A-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 9.1/10
#2 Masterpiece (2016) by Big Thief - 8.7/10
#3 B-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.1/10
#4 Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.5/10 _________________ -Ryan
It seems every release from Lenker and Meek kind of resets my expectations and introduces something new to consider. This second Big Thief album is, on its face, perhaps a similar experience to Masterpiece. But there is something barely noticeable that kept pulling me back to listen and listen again and again. There are many more shades to this album even than their amazing debut. This album continues Lenker’s and Big Thief’s trend toward how I think of them. I first heard Lenker’s newest solo album as well as the 2 2019 Big Thief albums. On those albums there is a strange and subtle weirdness to the way the melodies are sung and how the songs are written. On Masterpiece there are shades of that unorthodox style already shining through, but with this album it seems that Big Thief have found their own sound much more fully.
The big, Luconda-levels of badass rock star singing moments are mostly gone here. As are the more obvious and direct reminders of music I have heard before (even if on their debut these were done as well as imaginable and were never distractingly derivative). Instead this album is chilly, and even when there are some good rocking moments, those moments are shrouded in a sort of hazy, cold, and slightly weird atmosphere. The songwriting lyrically is different as well. Lenker has become by this point a master of abstract, poetic phrasing and word play. On tracks like “Mary” the momentum of the lines and the evocative words are almost overwhelming the further you go in. This, despite me not really fully understanding the allusions and the words. Just gorgeous.
As for specific track standouts here, I love the icey groove and the bookending noisy outburst of track “Shark Smile” I also really get a kick out of the super simple chorus that sounds like it bottles so much classic rock music romance and power. “Oooh, baby, take me. And you say ‘Oooh, baby, take me too’” just lovely.
There is a similar icey coolness on the other “rocking” moments and tracks on this album, such as “Objects” or the closing track “Black Diamonds”. I put rocking in quotes because there are no songs here that really kick ass in a rock way. The songs here have a distinct groove achieved by the consistently excellent and stripped down and patient bass playing and drumming. As a result even the songs that perhaps don’t have the same emotional punch as the slower and more dramatic tunes, still have a motion or a deep and alluring … something. I don’t know how to explain it and instead of sitting here searching for the words for another minute I decided to just abandon it. ?
The soft, brittle, fragile tunes here such as the opener “Pretty Things” or “Watering” have a timeless sound. They are excellently recorded and enveloping and gorgeous. The more trippy and divergent tracks such “Mythological Beauty” and “Capacity” are for me just absolutely gorgeous and, when I dig into the words and the melodies and the parts of these seemingly simple songs, my appreciation of this band grows and grows. This album may not be as immediately ear-catching or “badass” as their excellent debut, but every inch and corner of this album has something beautiful and subtle and lovely going for it.
Of course this album also features 2 of my favorite Lenker or Big Thief songs in “Mary” and “Coma”. I have touched on “Mary” before in this comment but I want to say again that the way the song builds and builds and the way the poetic lyrics sort of flow and fall out of Lenker’s mouth and the emotion of the delivery everything is just so gorgeous. As for “Coma”, words can’t do the chorus justice and the way that chorus is built up to and the way it is all so purposeful… man that track is genius.
Not going to lie, when I first heard this I was thinking “Okay, I feel I have a grip on what this is and what I wanna say”. I thought I could listen a couple times and move on to the next albums. But then each time through (up to listen 7 or 8 now) a little more revealed itself. Now here I am listening again and I am just a fan and that is all it comes down to. I thought their debut was probably as good as Big Thief would get, based on my sampling of their later albums and knowing that they never would make an album quite as folk rockin’ and anthemic as that one. But, nah, this is in many ways a development and improvement. At the very least this makes Big Thief 2 for 2 on making just absolutely beautiful, well written, performed, recorded, consistent, addictive modern indie rock and folk rock gems.
As for Masterpiece, I initially gave it a 9.2/10. I reduced that to 8.7/10. Then I proceeded to think yet again that giving a number to these pieces of art seems silly and pointless. But I am 5 albums in and I won’t remove the numbering grade system now. Just know that depending on the day, Masterpiece or those Meek/Lenker EPs or this could be the best Big Thief/Lenker project in my opinion.
This bad boy gets a 9.2/10. Just a fantastic album with only a couple songs that don’t blow me away (“Objects”, “Pretty Things” and perhaps “Great White Shark”) but with 6 songs that, in isolation, I can say are some of my new favorites. Also looking at the tracks individually misses the point for me, because what makes this album special is the whole package and how it all weaves its way together in a beautiful way. Check out this album 3 or 4 times if you have a little time. Its great.
Rankings of sorts for all these disparate albums and projects so far:
#1 Capacity (2017) by Big Thief - 9.2/10
#2 A-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.9/10
#3 Masterpiece (2016) by Big Thief - 8.8/10
#4 B-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.1/10
#5 Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.5/10
(Note: I am constantly tinkering slightly with the ratings despite my distaste for the whole activity. That is why there are obvious changes above.) _________________ -Ryan
This, the first of 2 Big Thief-affiliated solo albums released by the 2 main members of the band (that may be disrespectful to the other 2 members not named Adrianne and Buck), this album is a simple, 24-minute collection of folk and country and blues-inflected songs by Buck Meek. Although at first this felt only moderately charming but mostly an inconsequential outlet for Meek’s song ideas, this has, over several listens, grown a bit in my estimation. Even after 3 listens it still feels like a somewhat patched and thrown-together collection of short old-timey songs. But there are delights hidden in here and gobs and gobs of charm and dusty, traditional, unvarnished beauty.
Meek has an excellent voice in small doses. He has a very old school, almost Hank Williams-esque nasally country delivery that is an excellent instrument for getting across the sad or somber or content and free feeling of these tracks. The vocals are supported by consistently varied and pretty folk/country guitar work, some simple but crisp drumming, some cool slide thrown in, as well as other small details that keep these tracks distinct and lively and interesting. The lyrics are solid and, while not at all like Lenker’s poetic and opaque writing nor trying to be anything like that, the words here do evoke strong and relatable emotions.
The entire package of this record, one with no clear major standouts outside of the closing track called “Fool Me” – which is excellent and moving in a kind of old Hank way – works as a small, bite-size break from more “serious” or worked over or purposeful albums by Big Thief. I don’t love this like the first couple Big Thief nor even those 2 EPs by Meek and Lenker. But there is something comforting and sweet and warmly snug about this album’s sound and attitude.
The track “Cannonball!” has a gritty rocking sound with some cool, clean, meaty bass playing pushing it along and an irresistible filthy slide guitar solo and some great harmonies. The song “Flight 9525” features a mesmerizing, broken and fragile vocal performance from Meek and the track is quite dark and lost and despondent. “Maybe” features a sort of slacker rock swagger, a cool melody and yet another great whispery and strained vocal performance. And, finally, as mentioned earlier, “Fool Me” is excellent and features a cool drunken, maundering piano as well as some cool reverby country guitar and sweet harmonies, and it’s the best track here. The rest of the album is dotted with a mix of unfinished tracks or rough outlines of tracks and moments of interest and beauty as well as some throw-away things.
I’ll give this a rating of 7.2/10. And I will recommend this to any of you who like Meek’s more recent 2021 solo album or this brand of unadorned, undramatic, almost off-the-cuff Americana.
---------------
Adrianne Lenker's next solo album, second as an adult, Abysskiss (2018)
The feels very much like a Songs precursor much more than a Hours Were The Birds sequel, if that makes sense. On Lenker’s solo debut as an adult, Lenker sounded bright and optimistic and young and talented as hell with definite notes of that philosophical somberness and poetry that would later fully blossom. But, again, it was mostly a standard (if quite good) singer/songwriter album. Her 2020 album, Songs, is, as I have already mentioned, a masterpiece of such profound impact as to make every other album unnecessary for long stretches of time for me. It’s a ghostly, overwhelmingly emotional and profound document of isolation and harsh and vital and painful soul-searching. On this imaginary scale between her debut and her 3rd record, I’d arbitrarily and dorkily say that abysskiss is 70% Songs and 30% in the direction of Hours Is The Birds.
With that said, I don’t feel like this is as great as her more recent album, very VERY few albums of any kind are held in such high regard by me. But this is a damned amazing and arresting and powerful folk album. Its full of some of Lenker’s most moving and paradoxical lyrical moments, many of her best acoustic guitar work and the production knows when to disappear and let the simple and austere sounds carry the emotion while also knowing when to add oohs and ahhs and some production adornments.
The album starts off nicely, with each of the first 4 tracks being beautiful acoustic folk beauties. But it doesn’t quite take me to emotionally vulnerable places until track 5 “cradle”, which is so damn gorgeous. The little harmonized vocals that are overlayed here are stunning. The next track is almost as good. It’s called “symbol” and it has a catchy and memorable chorus and the verses and the sound of the guitar sounds almost ominous and very dark. The only thing that keeps this song from quite being a classic of classics is the pulsing percussion sound, which personally is distracting and I don’t love. Everything else though…chef’s kiss.
Elsewhere, there are some great tunes, such as the closer “10 miles”, “abyss kiss”, “blue and red horses”, “womb”, and the opener “terminal paradise”. The album has a good flow and if you’re looking for some moody, melancholy folk with confessional yet obtuse lyrics, you can’t go wrong here. But only if you have already heard her album Songs. If you want this on steroids, check that out.
I really like this album quite a lot. But its one of those situations that perhaps you who are reading this can relate to, when an artist has another album which sounds similar enough and yet is monumental to you and nearly perfect so the other album is thoroughly overshadowed. If I had discovered and listened to this album several times before Songs, I am pretty sure I would feel a deep attachment to these tracks, these touching and beautiful and painful and ghostly tunes. But because Songs was my first introduction to not just solo Adrianne Lenker but also Big Thief, it casts a huge shadow. I have listened to Lenker’s 2020 LP at least 35 times the last year and a half and at this point every note and word is etched into the outer walls of my heart (very painful and unhealthy, and I don't recommend doing this to your own heart). But there is something missing here on abysskiss. Or at least it feels like something essential is missing to make this a real show-stopper. Admittedly, Songs has made me feel most music in it's time zone and genre are missing something essential ever since 2020, so keep that in mind. And the thing with those Big Thief and Meek/Lenker projects that made me love them them and made them not be in the shadow of Songs is they are VERY different sounding albums. Whereas, abysskisscuts too close to sounding like a beta-version of the next solo Lenker LP.
But enough negativity because that ain’t fair. This is indeed a solid as hell and very good and moving folk album and Lenker is a genius songwriter and that talent is shown off here. As is her incredible voice. This album’s vocal performances are FULLY “Lenkerfied”, - a made up new mercury word meant to mean they sound surreal and haunted and they have that almost indescribable quality that her debut didn’t yet have.
In closing, I like this a lot and I am a sucker for the sound and aesthetic of this style and this artist and everything she represents and has ever produced… so I am obviously gonna give this a nice rating. Let’s say this is a 7.9/10 and move on, shall we?
--------------
Rankings of sorts for all these disparate albums and projects so far:
#1 Capacity (2017) by Big Thief - 9.2/10
#2 A-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.9/10
#3 Masterpiece (2016) by Big Thief - 8.8/10
#4 B-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.1/10
#5 abysskiss (2018) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.9/10
#6 Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.5/10
#7 Buck Meek (2018) by Buck Meek - 7.2/10 _________________ -Ryan
On this album, so much comes together for Big Thief. The whole sound that they had hinted at for 2 albums earlier seem to coalesce. The production is more amazing than ever. The songwriting has moments of transcendent beauty. The sound of the group gets more strange and hard to pin down. They still have that Indie Folk meets Indie Rock sound, sure, but there are elements of experimentation that sort of bleed in and out, as well as some cool almost mathy or American Football-ish guitar work, some truly excellent and detailed drum work, and overall this album is a feast for the ears when I listen with high volume and nice headphones.
It should be said that the opening track here is BY FAR the standout song here. Not to say that other tracks aren’t great, because some are, but “Contact” is for me on a whole new level of stunning. The Big Thief model seems to be for their opening track to be low-key and kind of morose or contemplative and almost without fail the opener isn’t a highlight for me. That trend seems to be continuing with their upcoming new 2022 album. So, the fact that this album starts with such a masterpiece is surprising and appreciated. From the nocturnal, mesmerizing, hazy first 2 minutes with that groove and those lyrics which are so gorgeous, all the way to that explosive and truly towering and impactful final minute or so of guttural screaming mixed with that emotive and huge rock guitar, this whole song is stunning and in the running for best song of the decade. Adore it.
After that there is a winning streak this album goes on from the incredibly comforting title track, to the pastoral and blissful third track “Cattails”, to the rework on the song that was already a standout on Lenker’s previous solo album, “From”, but now with more of that gorgeous and detailed drum work and the production here that is uniformly immersive, this song levels up here in Big Thief-form. And then track 5 is a beautiful, tender, whispery almost slowcore-influenced track called “Open Desert” which is fabulous.
I will say that the personal love of the album does not maintain this same level of mastery, otherwise this would be a nearly 10/10 classic. That is not to say I don’t really like the second half. But from track 6 through to track 12 I feel like my ears are left less satiated than they were with the first 5 songs. Still it is here in the second half when the vocals get a bit changed up and there are some really beautiful stripped down confessional folk songs (“Orange”) and almost airy and care-free rock tracks (“Century”) and its all at least good stuff still featuring the best production yet on any Big Thief record as well as some badass venturing into new musical territories. It feels like with this first album of 2019, Big Thief just broke loose from any sort of self-imposed limitations on what kind of music they wanted to make. The subject matters are mostly less visceral and brutal than what was on Capacity, and they jams are less clearly rocking and traditional than on their debut. And they just go where they want and where they want is almost all good stuff.
The stand out for me of the last 7 tracks is another re-work of a solo Adrianne Lenker song from her previous album. It’s called “Terminal Paradise” and in this more fleshed out and richly produced and chiseled form this song is a stunner and one of the most beautiful songs Big Thief have ever made. The vocals alone are so moving and show off that Lenker is indeed one of the better vocalists around (in my opinion anyway) and she has a lot of range as well. For an example of range listen to the cool, kind of sexy and swaggering vocals on “Century” and then the sort of deeper register of “Betsy” and then the soaring high pitched majesty of “Terminal Paradise”. She is a gem, this Adrianne Lenker.
I don’t have much else to say except that this album hasn’t captured my whole soul for a week straight like Capacity did despite having 2 or 3 songs which are tops in my Big Thief song rankings. I can hear the freedom and looseness of the band here and it’s a great sound. The result may be a bit less consistency and a bit less of a perfect flow as an album than their first couple albums. Still any album with “Contact” is going to be a fucking gem of a record. And add to that the mastery on display on “UFOF”, “Cattails”, “From”, “Open Desert”, “Terminal Paradise” and, to slightly lesser degree, “Magic Dealer”, “Orange”, “Betsy”, “Strange”, etc etc… yeah this is a great album and continues their winning streak alive and well.
This gets a 8.6/10.
-----------
Rankings of sorts for all these disparate albums and projects so far:
#1 Capacity (2017) by Big Thief - 9.2/10
#2 A-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.9/10
#3 Masterpiece (2016) by Big Thief - 8.8/10
#4 U.F.O.F. (2019) - 8.6/10
#5 B-Sides (2014) by Adrianne Lenker & Buck Meek - 8.1/10
#6 abysskiss (2018) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.9/10
#7 Hours Were The Birds (2013) by Adrianne Lenker - 7.5/10
#8 Buck Meek (2018) by Buck Meek - 7.2/10 _________________ -Ryan
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
LedZep
Mercury
