Album Review: Slowing Down to the Speed of Earth in Big Thief's 'Two Hands'

Big Thief’s second album of 2019, Two Hands, is a return to Earth. By stepping back from the alien perspective on U.F.O.F., Big Thief leaves us with their softest and most mature work yet.

Written by Glenn Rodgers

Photo courtesy of Pitchfork

Good writing either presents us radically new ideas, or a new perspective on something that's already been said before. Big Thief's new album Two Hands does the latter. Following U.F.O.F., the band's first album released in 2019, Big Thief keeps their focus on the mystery of the world and relationships in Two Hands. This time, they don’t look for answers in the cosmos, but instead turn their perspective towards the people on Earth. By doing so, the band doesn’t struggle to search for something different to say, but presents us with the still unanswered questions of the past through a new perspective.

Though the sound of Two Hands is different from U.F.O.F., both albums still speak on our lack of understanding in the world, with lead vocalist Adrianne Lenker repeating that we’re still trying “to figure through the answers” on the album's title track. The song “Two Hands” was first released as a surprise physical copy included with the vinyl purchase of U.F.O.F. This led people to believe that it was a cut track from the album and not an opening for a new album. However, even if it was a cut song, it’s clear that by including the title track of the new album in the release of U.F.O.F., Big Thief was drawing a link between the two bodies of work. Unlike the extraterrestrial views of U.F.O.F., Two Hands deals with our questions through the lens of humanity. While the title track deals with recurring Big Thief themes of unfulfilling friendships and the power of being held in someone’s arms, it presents a more experimental side of Big Thief and the album’s direction. 

Unlike in the band’s previous albums, the guitars in Two Hands find themselves at a lower volume. By stepping back from their previous headphone-filling production, Big Thief creates a lighter and more airy sound. This may come as a disappointment to fans of Buck Meek’s gritty lead guitar. But in doing so, the new sound of Two Hands doesn’t force Lenker’s vocals to fit inside the band’s melody, but lets their beautiful thinness float and dance around the top of your head. Her voice comes across as something almost separate from the instrumentals and gives the listener a different experience every time. Lenker’s vocals are hard to hold on to. They subtly slip away and make you want to relisten to her words, because you know they’re hiding something that you want to find.

The softness of the album also translates through its speed. Two Hands is a slowed down version of Big Thief’s typical train-like chug. The rhythm of the album finds a comfortable sway, best shown on the intro track “Rock and Sing.” The speed also contrasts with the almost howl-like presence of Lenker’s voice and focuses more on her lyrical, spoken-word-style lyrics.

“Forgotten Eyes” presents a unique look on the vein of humanity present throughout the rest of the album. The song focuses on how our forgettance of the less fortunate is an active decision, singing about how “Forgotten hands are the ones which we choose / To let go of.” Lenker then questions who is more “hollow” than us, as we hurriedly pass by those asking for help on the street, or the people that we pass without recognition. The song works to remind us of our human commonalities regardless of our social status. When asked in an interview with Radio Milwaukee about the song’s repeated closing lines “Forgotten tongue is the language of love,” Lenker said she believes in a forgotten universal language that “brings our commonalities to the surface rather than creating more separation.” She also said she likens this universality to our ability to understand the feelings present in music, even without an understanding of the words.

Similarly to the closing lines of “Forgotten Eyes,” “Not” is built entirely around repetition, beginning almost every line with the word or a similar negation and finding strength in the rocking rhythm. The song itself gives a climax to the album and Lenker’s acceptance of unanswerable questions.

Though the singles as some of the more powerful statements on the album, their views on humanity are tied together by the rest of the album. The weight of their faster and louder volume is only present in its juxtaposition of Big Thief’s new sound. Similar to its cosmic companion album, Two Hands creates more questions than it answers. Big Thief’s return to earth finds comfort in that mystery, though. The album’s new sound may lose some of Big Thief’s conventional rock fans, but Two Hands’ softness is important. It shows that the band doesn’t display anger in the face of confusion or their past desires to fly away to Saturn, but an acceptance that human change is necessary.