Big Thief - "Little Things" / "Sparrows"

Never ones to keep things simple, Big Thief return with not one, but two excellent new tracks. 

In 2019, Big Thief released two of my favorite records of the year. They followed those up with an outtake in 2020 and now, they're back with two more new tracks. Both produced by drummer James Krivchenia, the tracks are two great examples of the band's wide-range in song writing. "Little Things" starts off with eclectic rhythm and wrap-around melody that feels freewheeling and full of spirit before turning into a dense, noisy jam that takes a stab at their rock tendencies and feels more inline with the songs that wound up on Two Hands. “It’s in this sort of evolving free time signature where the beat is always changing,” Krivchenia said in a press release. “So Max [Oleartchik] and I were just flowing with it and guessing where the downbeats were — which gives the groove a really cool light feeling.” The track collapses around itself as it warps into a twisted solo that feels like the band pushing towards bigger picture sounds.

In contrast, "Sparrows" is more of a sprawling folk song with lyrics that give it the feeling of an epic poem set to music. It was also recorded in one take. “We all just scattered about the room without headphones, focused and in the music – you could feel that something special was happening,” Krivchenia said. “It was a funny instrumentation that had a really cool natural arrangement chemistry – Max on piano, Buck [Meek] providing this dark ambience, me on floor tom and snare and Adrianne in the middle of it with the acoustic and singing.” There's still no word on a new album, but for now, we have two more excellent tracks to get lost in as we wait and you can buy them on the group's Bandcamp.