Big Thief - Capacity

Adrianne Lenker is a romantic folk-rock poet of the first order – see “Watering,” which uncovers unnerving beauty in lines like “my blood was dripping into his mouth.” Her Brooklyn group’s second set is even prettier and more intense than their 2016 debut, a mix of seductive and scary with lyrical turns that rarely fail to surprise, even on repeated listens. One highlight is “Shark Smile,” an impressionistic riff on rock & roll’s fantasy space, about a mythic girl and a heap of cash with a pile-up of highway metaphors. Funny, propulsive, queer, dissonant, and utterly intoxicating, it gilds a record to put on next time some stooge tells you indie rock is dead. -Rolling Stone