I’ve always said, “Why limit yourself to a single selection of five fingers and a palm when you could simply double-fist the year of 2019?” I say this because I assume this is the question Big Thief asked themselves when they decided one year-defining album wasn’t enough for them in 2019 — like an unquenchable college student unaware of their tolerance limit, they wanted more. Hence Two Hands, the record to complete the set, out October 11 on 4AD.
But wait a minute; weren’t we all just listening to the hottest album on the block, U.F.O.F.? Well, don’t worry! All that diligent research will come in handy because Two Hands is being billed as something of a “sister album,” if you will — an “earth twin” to its “celestial twin,” a soil sample to its moon rock sample. Recorded near El Paso, the record “grounds itself on dried-out, cracked desert dirt.” According to voice mystic Adrianne Lenker, “Two Hands has the songs that I’m the most proud of; I can imagine myself singing them when I’m old. Musically and lyrically, you can’t break it down much further than this. It’s already bare-bones.”
But why wait for the desert to sweep you up in the howling whirlwind of its margins? You can get dusted by the arid power of lead single “Not” now; listen below.
And while you’re ingratiating yourself to the gods of the barren wastes down there, check out the full tracklisting and, hey, pre-order the record here (you won’t need all that green anymore, anyway).
The sounds of Two Hands clapping:
01. Rock And Sing
02. Forgotten Eyes
03. The Toy
04. Two Hands
05. Those Girls
06. Shoulders
07. Not
08. Wolf
09. Replaced
10. Cut My Hair
More about: Big Thief