Big Thief Reflect on Time and Change in Double Infinity

By Ana McGrath

Big Thief’s sixth studio album, Double Infinity, marks a progression in their sound and approach. Their first album as a trio sees Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia explore complex themes such as aging and impermanence. Together they blend indie folk with pop, while experimenting with electronic elements. The band’s ability to capture the joy in life’s fragile, fleeting nature shines through in both the lyrical content and the musical arrangements. A follow-up to their Grammy-nominated album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, which stretched across 20 songs, Double Infinity is shorter, consisting of only nine tracks. This difference in length alone signals a more concentrated vision: where its predecessor varied in its employment of moods and styles, Double Infinity feels like a singular framed meditation. Ultimately, this record is quieter, more deliberate and intimate than their previous work.

Released on 5th September 2025 via 4AD, the album had an interesting rollout. The band invited fans to host pre-release parties, whether that be in a group or private setting. They sent printable materials to the fans who were granted early access, including a lyric book, an infinity card and colouring materials. The child-like nature of these materials is fitting, echoing the album’s embrace of both innocence and the inevitable complexities of life. It aligned with the themes of the album, the playfulness in the face of growing older and the acceptance of life’s cyclical nature.

The album’s opening track and lead single, “Incomprehensible”, sets the tone for the entire record. It has a catchy, upbeat rhythm, with lyrics that are sweet and warm. Lenker embraces the changes that come with age with poetic lyricism, “My mother and my grandma, my great-grandmother too / Wrinkle like the river, sweeten like the dew.” In a society that often shuns aging, these lines challenge conventional views, offering a profound reflection on the passage of time and the beauty that comes with it. The imagery of aging as a natural process, rather than something to fear or hide, creates a resonance that lingers throughout the album. In the line, “So let gravity be my sculptor, let the wind do my hair,” Lenker seems to let go of any control over the inevitable. She embraces time’s sculpting force, allowing life’s rhythms to shape her, rather than fighting against them. There is a sense of this in the

music behind Lenker’s voice too, which is light and forgiving. The sense of surrender in these lines speaks to the album’s larger theme of accepting life’s dualities: the joy and the sorrow, the fleeting and the eternal.

The third track on the album, “Los Angeles”, opens with laughter, highlighting the unadulterated joy behind the album. They gathered artists together to help them in the making of the album: “Together with a community of musicians (Alena Spanger, Caleb Michel, Hannah Cohen, Jon Nellen, Joshua Crumbly, June McDoom, Laraaji, Mikel Patrick Avery, Mikey Buishas), they would play for nine hours a day, tracking together – simultaneously – improvising arrangements and making collective discoveries.” [1] Laraaji is credited as a feature on the seventh track on the album, “Grandmother”. Known for his ambient and spiritual music, Laraaji’s wordless vocalising adds an otherworldly texture to the song. This spirit of openness and collaboration infuses Double Infinity with a communal warmth that complements its introspective themes. The laughter and improvisations allow the album to feel less like a self-contained studio project and more like a shared experience.

The album’s contemplative quality is especially vivid on “No Fear” and “Happy With You” (tracks six and eight respectively). In “No Fear”, Big Thief lean into mantra-like repetition, cycling through its looped lines. The track then dissolves into its closing lines, “There is no fear, mind so clear, mind so free / There is no time.” This strips the mantra back to its simplest form. This looping structure enacts the album’s themes of impermanence and self- dissolution, gradually peeling away detail until only essence remains. “Happy With You” uses a similar device, circling around the questioning line “Happy with you, why do I need to explain myself?” before closing on the stark, repeated phrase “poison shame.” In both songs, repetition functions as a kind of self-examination, with the mind’s circling thoughts turned into melody. While this may feel slightly redundant, and a step back from their previous works, the looped structure works to reinforce Double Infinity’s preoccupation with cycles, memory and release.

Among the album’s nine tracks, “Words” and “Los Angeles” stand out as quintessential Big Thief, showcasing Adrianne Lenker’s unmistakable storytelling lyricism and the band’s instinct for weaving intimate narratives into their music. These songs act as anchors within the album’s more experimental turns, grounding the record in the qualities that have long

defined the group’s sound. While Double Infinity departs from the heavier atmosphere of some of Big Thief’s earlier work, it does so without abandoning depth or craft. Instead, it offers a more concentrated meditation on change and acceptance. In doing so, the album affirms the band’s willingness to evolve while remaining unmistakably themselves.

[1] Big Thief, “Double Infinity,” Bandcamp, September 5, 2025 https://bigthief.bandcamp.com/album/double-infinity.