#double infinity

[mychem-as-album-covers]

Mikey Way as Double Infinity - Big Thief (2025)

[westernlarch]

Mutuals, I want to sit outside with you and make music/art/stories in the sunshine and just chill like this

[taste-in-music]

Words are tired and tense Words don't make sense Words are feathered and light Words won't make it right

Words Big Thief

[iamlisteningto]

Big Thief’s Double Infinity

[platossoulmates]

[offthecoastofmaine]

Listening to the new big theif album rn!

[midnight-society-tlou]

i didn't know i could love a song so much so fast but here we are

[dustedmagazine]

Big Thief — Double Infinity (4AD)

For an album with such a grandiose title, Big Thief’s Double Infinity is bafflingly mediocre — especially since it arrives on the back of a string of good-to-great albums. Tellingly, the band’s sixth full-length is their first since losing bassist Max Oleartchik for “interpersonal reasons.” Given many of Big Thief’s past interviews outlined the importance of their friendship to the band’s musical chemistry, Oleartchik’s departure was clearly a heavy blow to sustain — and you can hear it. In his stead arrives a host of collaborators (Alena Spanger, Caleb Michel, Hannah Cohen, Jon Nellen, Joshua Crumbly, June McDoom, Laraaji, Mikel Patrick Avery, Mikey Buishas) on bass, vocals and percussion. Together they muster a rich, swirling sound that’s big on feel and groove, mainly thanks to drummer James Krivchenia’s superb playing, but surprisingly bereft of the songwriting acuity we’ve come to expect.

Prior to the album’s release the band shared four of the nine songs on offer, none of which set the pulse racing. “Incomprehensible” is a serviceable opener, while lyrics about oral sex on “All Night All Day” and recordings of studio laughter at the start of “Los Angeles” proved rather offputting. The most notable of the four is “Grandmother,” which features impassioned wordless vocals from Laraaji. Each of the singles set the template for the majority of the songs on the album, which are built around simple chord progressions that loop over and over, with little variation between verse and chorus, or evolution as each song progresses. It’s also disappointing to realize that track two, “Words,” is reminiscent of the 1994 pop hit “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something.

Of the other five songs, “No Fear” and “Happy With You,” which both appear in the album’s second half, are the most engaging. “No Fear” has a slow, hypnotic, bass-driven groove that earns its seven-minute run-time, culminating in a wash of chimes and a backwards run of the tape during the final minute. “Happy With You,” which the band has previously debuted live, introduces a striking set of fast-moving chord changes, while the mantra-like vocals repeat “Happy with you,” then “Poison shame,” over and over.

In my review of their last album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, I described the record as “both a consolidation of what’s made the band’s previous albums so compelling, and offers a natural next step in the evolution of their writing and arranging talents.” In contrast, Double Infinity feels like a step backward, an album that sounds like a band trying to re-learn how to conjure the magic that seemed to flow so effortlessly — but largely coming up short.

Tim Clarke