Masterpiece (studio album) by Big Thief

Masterpiece by Big Thief
Year: 2016
Release date: 2016-05-27
Overall rank: 3,358th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 101 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2016 (48th)
Award Top albums of the 2010s (581st)
Award Best albums of all time (3,358th)
Product Details
Availability

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Masterpiece by Big Thief Vinyl
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Big Thief Masterpiece (Vinyl) 12" Album Coloured Vinyl (Limited Edition)
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Big Thief - Masterpiece [Used Very Good CD] With Booklet
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Big Thief bestography

Masterpiece is ranked 5th best out of 6 albums by Big Thief on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Big Thief is Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You which is ranked number 793 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,263.

Big Thief album bestography « Higher ranked (2,159th) This album (3,358th) Lower ranked (72,176th) »
Two HandsMasterpieceLive At The Bunker Studio

Upcoming concerts

Mar
28
Thu
20:00
The Stew :: Local Music Showcase with Final Essay, Thief, Amelia & The Airhearts, Troy Bennet and Fizzy
Chelsea’s Live, Baton Rouge, United States. United States
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May
17
Fri
20:00
Buck Meek (of Big Thief)
Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Thea, Somerville, United States. United States
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Nov
19
Tue
19:30
The Pineapple Thief
The Underground, Charlotte, United States. United States
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Masterpiece track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Rating: 74 (23 votes)Comments: 0
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2.
Rating: 83 (34 votes)Comments: 0
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3.
Rating: 79 (22 votes)Comments: 0
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4.
Rating: 80 (26 votes)Comments: 0
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5.
Rating: 78 (20 votes)Comments: 0
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6.
Rating: 76 (22 votes)Comments: 0
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7.
Rating: 82 (37 votes)Comments: 1
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8.
Rating: 79 (21 votes)Comments: 0
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9.
Rating: 78 (22 votes)Comments: 0
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10.
Rating: 79 (21 votes)Comments: 0
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11.
Rating: 77 (20 votes)Comments: 0
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12.
Rating: 81 (25 votes)Comments: 0
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Masterpiece rankings

Masterpiece collection

Masterpiece ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 101 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 101 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
85/100
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46 hours ago moose44bob  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 27182/100
 
80/100
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03/22/2024 21:58 tyleraepps  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 35884/100
 
80/100
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03/06/2024 02:01 Mmorrison22  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,89777/100
 
70/100
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02/17/2024 19:10 AwaitingAndrew  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2,23372/100
 
65/100
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02/09/2024 21:42 Igtonumama  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 8,91060/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.8/100, a mean average of 77.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 11.3.

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Masterpiece favourites

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Masterpiece comments

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Rating:  
90/100
From 02/11/2022 18:14
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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 11/20/2021 22:43
What an absolutely phenomenal debut album, no skips to be found here- every song is phenomenal. This is depressingly underrated on this site. 9/10
Best songs: Paul, Masterpiece, Vegas, Animals, Parallels
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 05/30/2019 11:04
One of the best debuts in the 2010's

No flash in the pan here , this is the real deal from a group destined to be a legacy act

Masterpiece is what it claims
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 04/19/2018 13:21
At first I thought, well, this is pretty ok. But second half of the album blew my mind, it is outstandingly beautiful. 8/10.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 09/09/2017 21:33
Best Tracks: Real Love, Paul, Masterpiece
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 06/02/2016 15:43
Humans and Animals are good catchy songs that offer an interesting contrast to the rest of the album that is a bit too drab and static.

Favorite tracks: Humans, Animals
Less favorite trakcs: Little Arrow, Velvet Ring
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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