Review: Exploration pays off in Big Thief's 20-track album

Brooklyn-based indie rock band Big Thief seems to draw from a bottomless well of creativity

“Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” Big Thief (4AD)

Brooklyn-based indie rock band Big Thief seems to draw from a bottomless well of creativity. After releasing two records in 2019, the band’s fifth LP, “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” is a sprawling 20-track double album.

While quantity does not always equal quality, in Big Thief’s case, the band never compromises the excellence of their songwriting. Instead of churning out carbon copies of the same song, they use each album as a playground for exploration — and it pays off.

In “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You,” the group of four — Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik, and James Krivchenia — recorded in four different studios with four different engineers and drummer Krivchenia as producer. The effect is a collection of songs that feel dynamic with unexpected turns throughout the track list. The soft love song “12,000 Lines” is followed by the buzzing “Simulation Swarm.”