In the live setting, a few things were clear. Her sound is also growing more versatile. Titanic Rising speaks a lot about climate change, and a world falling apart at the seems, sure, but the way we deal with it is oftentimes cathartic and maybe even regressive or contradictory.
Big Thief makes music that feels close from the jump. Their latest album is called UFOF after all, which quite literally pairs something unidentified with something familiar; serving as the perfect metaphor for music that pairs the kinship of playing hide and seek amongst nature and the incomprehensible nature of death.
Having gradually built cred on Saddle Creek records, Big Thief are clearly ready for more world building with their bump up to 4AD. It is a thick swamp of sounds, some terrifying, others crushing, and still others purely openhearted material to wrap oneself up in. The title-track that follows pivots to warmth, however, with Lenker imagining a friend taking her off on some sort of emotional journey. This type of flow is par for the course here. Not to mention the sonic details which lift this music up.
Towers of piano reach here, and crunches of life bring you down into the earth there. Aldous Harding gives you thoughts to ponder. Like the splatter-paint way she tosses vocal melodies in different colors onto her canvass of small instrumental devices, she throws out lyrical ideas that the listener must then piece together.
Designer is a vaguely evocative world that maybe could fade into the background on first listen, at least outside of some of the catchy numbers, but rewards deeper reflection on what it all means. Sure, Harding leans into absurdity on occasion. One recurring focal point is the idea of childhood perspective and how that creates tension with jaded adulthood. Both works avoid narrative, and many of the songs phase in and out of specific ideas and theses, but with the very specifically conjured visual aesthetic, they make a bit more sense and offer more straightforward emotional warmth.
