By Martin Castro (The Cascade) – Email
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“Little Arrow,” the song that opens Masterpiece, is as misleading as the record’s cover art. Vocalist and lead guitarist Adrianne Lenker’s measured voice rings out on top of a lazily strummed guitar and the white noise which permeates the background of the recording. If you came upon the first track of this record, listened to it and looked at the album art, all flash and out-of-focus toy bird in the foreground, plastic dinosaur a couple of inches back, you might get the idea that it’s the result of a band fetishizing lo-fi in the most complete way they could manage — encompassing everything from the instrumentation of the album, to the way it’s recorded, to the cover art. You might think, This whole thing is entirely too self-aware for it to be genuine. No thank you, and stop listening.
I’m here to tell you not to do that, here to say that if you do, you’ll regret it.
The reason lies in the fact that on Masterpiece, Big Thief have managed to marry the gritty, fuzzy guitar solos of a more energetic type of post-punk, and the pleasant, October-coloured brand of folk that seems to come hand-in-hand with Pumpkin Spice Lattes, tying it all together with Lenker’s crisp, engaging lyricism. “Masterpiece” for example, would be, instrumentally speaking, a simple singer-songwriter acoustic ballad if it weren’t for the distorted guitar crashing through the track. The result is mesmerizing.
That’s the ground that Big Thief toes on Masterpiece, and of all the tracks on the record, “Real Love” is the most indicative of that. The track oscillates between sweet, melancholy verses, dripped out like honey by Lenker, and the chorus, which is defiant and a bit more hardline. Guitars squeal out, spongy and distorted among crash cymbals exploding in the background. Throughout the track we’re slowly, hesitantly making our way towards a climax, going forward a few paces, then back a few.
And after a guitar solo that’s so rad it distracts the listener from the upcoming explosion, the track devolves into a mess of Lenker shredding on guitar and feedback from the amps and wholly cathartic drums thrashing in the corner of the room, lashing out at the space around them.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Then we get to tracks like “Paul.” Oh, man. The drums spill forward, two guitars intertwine sweet melodies, Lenker moans every lyric in such a way that I can’t tell whether the emotion in her voice is impeccably measured or simply flowing out of her, escaping her, overriding the entire track.
Overall, Masterpiece is a bit more lighthearted throughout, and Big Thief made the right decision in spacing out the tracks which hit harder. The record is paced quite well. One of the lighter songs in terms of instrumentation that’s still amazingly constructed is “Velvet Ring.” The entire thing is essentially a duet between Lenker and an acoustic guitar cascading onward, both gaining and losing momentum as they progress.
You ought to listen to it. You really should.
If you do yourself one favour today, make it this one.
