Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, Big Thief’s fifth studio album, is about just as many things as there are words in the title. Every song tackles cosmic themes: from the never-ending change of life to the intensity of living in the modern, digital world.
With 20 tracks, the album is truly able to showcase the variety of sounds that Big Thief is able to produce. However, where the tracks of Dragon diverge in their sound, they stay united in their lyrics.
Despite the album containing some of Big Thief’s most chaotic sounding tracks, it starts with a slow, methodical song that establishes themes that will resurface throughout the entire album. “Change” fittingly explores life’s only constant: change. As the lead vocalist and songwriter of Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker is always able to do, the song takes the listener to the stars but then draws them back home to hear a more touching story.
Lenker first contemplates change through dichotomies like life and death or day and night. However, for the last verse of the song, Lenker sings about change in a relationship. The speaker once loved someone, but things have changed, and they are gone now.
The contrast of the sound of the album comes in the amount that the full band plays in each song. In the first half of the album, many of the songs include the full band, like “Time Escaping,” “Spud Infinity,” or “Little Things.” The inclusion of the full band makes the songs loud and at times chaotic, but still very enjoyable with their impressive instrumentals. Both “Time Escaping” and “Spud Infinity” are about different aspects of the collective human experience.
“Time Escaping” reflects on the fatigue felt by Lenker and many others because of the digital, hyper-connected age they live in. The message of “Spud Infinity” is more abstract, but still connects the listener to the human race at large by reminding them that “Everybody eats the plants,” and no one is able to kiss their own elbows.
On the other hand, “Little Things” is about infatuation and neglect. The speaker of the song is reflecting on a past relationship where they were infatuated with their partner, which restricted their worldview to just a “needle eye” perception. This is contrasted with possible neglect by their partner, and the speaker ends the song ambiguously through the repeated line “Where are you now?”
By the back half of the album, most of the songs just feature Lenker’s vocals and limited instruments. “Dried Roses” and “Promise is a Pendulum” both provide a space for Lenker to showcase her amazing lyricism as Lenker describes the feelings that persist after a relationship ends. In the song “Promise”, the speaker is struggling with promises they made while they were in a past relationship. Since they are not in the relationship anymore and have moved on, the speaker’s feelings have changed, and they no longer feel capable or obligated to fulfill those promises.
While many of Lenker’s more solo songs deal with breakups and loss of love, they never feel angry or bitter. Lenker is able to see the beauty in a relationship once had and, at the same time, be content with it not existing anymore. The song “Dried Roses” continues with this theme.
In this song, Lenker describes the small but uncomfortable changes that have to be made after the end of a relationship. While the speaker used to wake up and prepare coffee and tea for both themself and their lover, living alone and not doing the little things makes their day-to-day life feel empty.
Just three tracks away from the end of the album is one of Big Thief’s greatest songs: Simulation Swarm. The song opens with a soft but cyclical guitar loop, which is a signature sign of Lenker and Big Thief, a defined bassline, and distinct drums. All of the instruments combine to create a repetitive but unique melody, which remains captivating throughout the entire song.
The vocals of the song are equally interesting. Lenker heavily uses alliteration and syncopation to verbally match the sound of the song. The subject of the song is a synthesis of two events from Lenker’s life. First, she sings about her hospitalization after her body broke down from fatigue due to seven years of touring. This is combined with Lenker’s desire to meet her biological brother, Andy. The spiritual experience that Lenker had when hospitalized, along with her longing to connect with a brother whom she might not ever be able to, creates a message that invokes a sense of longing in the listener. The feelings and tangible images that this song explores and creates cement it as one of the greatest tracks ever recorded.
Lenker’s powerful imagery, whether big through ideas like eternity and immortality or little through things like noticing an eyelash on her lover’s sweater or tidying her bed, shows the listener that small acts of intimacy make up most of the time in a relationship. Adrianne Lenker’s comforting lyrics portray love in a more honest and accurate way than any other artist is able to do.Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You showcases the wide variety of music that Big Thief is able to produce, and will stay relevant for generations as an example of perfect lyricism and one of the greatest indie rock albums of all time.
