Big Thief Meditate on Compassion with New Single “Forgotten Eyes”
Photo by Dustin Condren
Big Thief’s second full-length record of 2019, Two Hands is only a week away and it’s safe to say they’ve been on a roll. Today (Oct. 2), they’ve shared their second single from the project, a charming piece called “Forgotten Eyes” with a wistful energy perfectly suited to welcoming the changing of seasons into autumn.
While “Not,” the lead single of Two Hands, reached back to an aggressive, younger Big Thief sound accented by Adrianne Lenker’s abrasive vocals and an extended guitar solo, “Forgotten Eyes” is more relaxed. The song shows Big Thief at their most contemplative, Lenker meditating on the importance of “forgotten” objects that nonetheless guide us. Plants that once existed, she remarks, are “no less the dirt / of the common soil keeping us dry and warm.” It’s an affectionate reminder to take time to be aware of the often-unnoticed people and objects that have silent influence in our lives.
Lenker compared the two albums in a recent interview with Stereogum, saying that while U.F.O.F. conveyed an ethereal and densely layered experience that tapped into the spiritual, Two Hands will be rooted in our earthly bodies:
Two Hands is more the micro, zooming into the blood and tissue and guts of being a human, the raw, bare, naked bones, not much layering, capturing just our performances in the room, just very dry, no reverbs, just skin and flesh and human, finite, physical. But I think each of them contains parts of the others.
Two Hands is out Oct. 11 on 4AD and can be preordered here. Along with the release, Big Thief will be going on a North American fall tour next week. You can listen to “Forgotten Eyes” and Big Thief’s Daytrotter session below, and find their tour dates further down.
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