Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is a beautiful journey of an album released by indie-alternative band, Big Thief, in 2022. At twenty songs long, I was initially hesitant to dive into this album, as most longer albums, especially in the modern day, are often repetitive and bloated, creating a frustrating experience as it feels that some songs are just there to add fluff and don’t introduce any new ideas lyrically or sonically. However, this is not the case for Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. Here, Big Thief takes a more folksy approach to their stripped-down indie-rock style, while sometimes also branching out into more experimental sounds with clutters of subtle instrumentation and strange guitar tones melding together.
The album starts with “Change”, an absolute gut punch of an intro. We’re immediately shoved into, lead-singer, Adrianne Lenker’s strange new world she seems to be finding herself in, where she is coming to terms with the loss of a loved one, and reflecting on the inevitability of change. There’s a solemn acoustic guitar placed over soft and rolling percussion that evokes a bittersweet feeling. She grieves her loss, but also questions if it would be ideal for things to always stay the same, asking, “Would you live forever, never die, while everything around passes?” This song serves as a brilliant opener introducing the themes of love, loss, existentialism, and acceptance that are continuously placed throughout the rest of the album.
The next track, “Time Escaping”, is a clunky, yet otherworldly track about the entropy of our world with arpeggiating flute-like synths, intertwined with layers and layers of twinkly guitar plucking, some almost percussive. So much is going on here that it’s difficult to fully grasp what exactly is going on instrumentally, but it ultimately blends together to create a euphoric and explorative atmosphere.
Another stand-out track on the album that also utilizes this instrumentally messy technique is “Little Things”, which sounds like a chaotic twist on a Sun Kil Moon song. Lenker’s singing here is so non-structural, almost rambling to an extent. Her lyrics here paint a portrait of Lenker struggling to move on from a past relationship, acknowledging all of the problems of their relationship, yet still feeling this indescribable strong pull towards this person. It is quite a gut-wrenching song with Lenker putting out her pain on full display through the shakes and shrieks of her voice. The song builds and builds until it reaches the climactic end where she brutally asks, “Where are you now?”, followed by a scream and an almost two-minute instrumental outro. Buck Meek’s signature soft, yet crunchy guitar is beautifully weaved throughout, meandering over this chaotic instrumental. This song exemplifies Lenker’s unique style of songwriting, that makes her one of the greatest songwriters of this generation. Her songs feel like time capsules. They rarely tell full-on stories, but more so present a portrait of an emotion that Lenker experienced, each line filling in more and more details of the painting and the associated feeling that it’s trying to portray.
The third song on the album, “Spud Infinity”, is the first taste of Big Thief’s more country/rootsy-leaning tracks. This track is underscored by a bouncy jaw harp and features plenty of bluegrass fiddle. Touching on how insignificant we are in this life, yet how this life is all we have, this song is such a good time and a thoughtful self-love anthem. It even has a little jaw harp solo thrown near the end, which I found to be silly, but so fun! The track following this, “Certainty”, is a sweet and catchy song that’ll get stuck in your head all day. It describes the certainty that Lenker feels in the love she has for a specific person. She may not know much, but she’s certain about her love.
The title track is the fifth song on the album and features shimmering acoustic guitar picking on top of a bed of eerie synths and low-wailing electric guitar. The drums are super soft on this track playing like a faint march as the song trudges on. There’s also occasional rattling that plays that really adds to the atmosphere of the song. This song is the musical equivalent of laying down on a frozen lake during a blizzard, as it’s just pure serenity, yet chilling in a way.
The first five songs on this album are a great representation of the different kinds of songs throughout the album and all the genres that Big Thief attempts to span. I would say that if you’re scared of giving this twenty-song album a listen, listen to the first five songs and see what you think. If you like what you’re hearing, I urge you to listen on, as every single track on this album is unique and emotionally touching in different ways.
A style that is not explored within the first five tracks, but which I absolutely love is the two stripped-down acoustic songs placed near the back portion of the album, “Promise is a Pendulum” and “The Only Place”. Both songs feature just Lenker and her guitar and they are utterly stunning. Her voice is so delicate and is placed over complex and soothing guitar picking, which makes for some of my favorite songs on the album.
Another standout is the track, “Simulation Swarm”, which seems to be the most popular song off the album, and for good reason. This song is insanely catchy and contains such vivid yet vague imagery within it, really leaving it up to the listener on how to interpret the song. Buck Meek, as he tends to do, absolutely kills it, coming in at various points with a nostalgic and slightly off-kilter electric guitar adding another layer of depth to the song.
I have to mention my favorite track off the record, “12,000 Lines”. I know I called “Simulation Swarm” nostalgic sounding, but this song takes the cake in that department. This song is full of intricate acoustic guitar and perfectly encapsulates the yearning for a loved one that you know isn’t in your life anymore.
The album closes with “Blue Lightning”, another country-inspired track. The guitar on this song sounds like nothing else I’ve heard before. It’s the backbone of the track and sounds almost broken in how it fades in and out of the song at seemingly random. I’m truly at a loss on how to describe the guitar in this song, I’ve been listening to it for twenty minutes and just can't figure it out. It sounds almost like a trumpet or a clarinet or some mix between. It’s as if a guitar was a woodwind instrument that some guy was messing around with while the song was being played. It truly does sound amazing though; it works so well with the song and doesn’t seem disjointed from it despite the strangeness of it. The song has this joyful bluegrass vibe to it, and throughout Lenker is celebrating the love she feels in this world and all that comes with it. It’s a great final sentiment to the album and shows Lenker opening her arms to her own life. The last lines of the album are her answering the question she posed at the very beginning of the record on “Change”: “I wanna live forever til I die.” The ultimate embrace and celebration of life.
This album is very special. It contains consistently some of the best songwriting I’ve heard on any modern alternative album. It’s catchy, soft, sweet, and sad. It comes down to the record being jam-packed with emotion. Every song is about the human condition and how Lenker is attempting to cope with it through various perspectives. I didn’t even get to mention over half of the songs on the album, but nearly every song has something unique and truly beautiful about it. If you appreciate the beauty in life or are looking to do so, I strongly recommend listening to this album. It truly just gets better with every listen and I’m so excited to listen to this album in twenty years and notice a different guitar line that I’d never heard before or resonate with a lyric on a different level than I had before. Adrianne Lenker is one of the greatest songwriters of this generation and Big Thief has been a catalyst for her and her bandmates to channel their creativity and create one of the best albums of the century.
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