Big Thief - Double Infinity 

On the face of it, it should have spelled trouble for Big Thief that they arrived at a studio in midtown Manhattan this past January without any clear idea of how a sixth album was going to take shape. For a band whose calling card has been intricate, inventive arrangements for as long as they’ve been making music, gearing up to record with plenty still be to worked out sounds like it should be anathema - but they needn’t have worried. ‘Double Infinity’ is a gloriously satisfying record on which it feels like everything is in its right place; an album that on some songs features up to twelve players, but feels consistently intimate and laid-back.

It helps that Adrianne Lenker remains in the songwriting form of her life; with every album she releases, with her band or solo, the debate over who might be the greatest songwriter of her generation inches closer to being settled. There’s something more playful, conversational even, to her lyricism on these songs in comparison to last year’s rawer solo effort ‘Bright Future’, and it perfectly suits the sound of ‘Double Infinity’: there’s a countrified crackle to the swooningly lovely ‘All Night All Day’; a folky breeze to ‘Los Angeles’; and a lilting, anthemic quality to the harmony-led closer ‘How Could I Have Known’.

There’s still room for experimentation, too; ‘Incomprehensible’ is suffused with a wonderfully weird, spacey atmosphere, as what starts out sounding like a stream of consciousness from Adrianne gradually morphs into a powerful statement of self-empowerment. She is a genius, and Big Thief now have six out of six great records.