Big Thief’s sophomore release, Capacity, was a virtuosic album that spun family traumas into quiet, mystical hymns.

Their newest release, U.F.O.F., builds on that formula, winding complex melodies into cohesive, restrained folk songs to create music that sounds much more simple than it is.

While Capacity sulked in the shadows of the past, U.F.O.F. leaves that decayed house of memory walks out into the summer air, and turns its eyes to the sky. Its lyrics explore death, terminal illness, and the desire to escape or transcend the limits of human life and consciousness. Ultimately, the album is about the vast, unknowable things that flicker on the edges of ordinary reality and promise the existence of something beyond.

In some ways, U.F.O.F. seems like it’s meant to be listened to in complete silence, perhaps played out on staticky speakers in an abandoned lakeside mansion. Pensive, abstract, and full of longing, it almost seems like a living thing, ready to be peeled apart, mulled over, and shaped to fit each listener’s experiences. Though some of its earlier songs are jagged and abstract, the music in grows more and more powerful and pleasing to the ear as the album progresses.

One highlight is “Terminal Paradise,” a song that starts softly but builds up to a rustle of bell-like tones and jingling guitar patterns. The track feels somewhat like the stirrings of an early autumn wind, the scent of impending rain, or the breathless feeling of a plane taking off. “Jenni” is a powerful follow-up, a tangle of screaming guitar tones and slow drum beats.

The album’s final track, “Magic Dealer,” winds everything together. “I am the photograph in you, still as the moment we’re lying in right now,” whispers the band’s lead singer, Adrienne Lenker. That lyric could encapsulate all of U.F.O.F., which, for all its winding rhythms and secret passageways, never feels rushed or urgent. Instead, it feels sort of like lying in someone’s arms and ignoring the entire world, feeling the persistent chill of an impending ending, trying to hold onto a moment as it rushes away.

Despite the beauty of its music, the album is truly remarkable because of the quality of its lyrics. Lenker shines more lyrically than vocally on U.F.O.F. She has an uncanny talent for putting breathtaking words in strategic places—a silkworm here, you have wings of gold/you will never grow old there, a crystal between quotidian descriptions of suburban nights. In her ability to make pure poetry sound effortless and genuine, Lenker may be one of the closest lyricists to Leonard Cohen that we have today.

Despite their beauty, the lyrics are sometimes inaudible, at times so wispy that even quiet guitar plucking buries them. Perhaps that’s on purpose—maybe this album is more about the music, especially since Lenker’s solo album, abysskiss, allowed her words to take center stage. Maybe it was meant to be this way, designed so only certain phrases make it out of the fray, so fragments of poetry appear like lamplights on a misty road.

Though sometimes the lyrics are unintelligible, they are so heart-stoppingly gorgeous that it would be a shame for them to go unnoticed. So, without further ado, here are the lyrics to every song on U.F.O.F. (with my personal favorites in bold).

Contact

[Verse 1]

JodiPlease turn the pages for me You seem so free You know I’m barely, barely

[Verse 2] Wrap me in silk I want to drink your milk You hold the key You know I’m barely, barely

[Verse 3] Parker Lake Beach All of the sunnys swimming I wanna see To feel my body sinking, sinking

[Verse 4] She gives me gills Helps me forgive the pills She makes me singShe is both dreamer and dream And dream, and dream, and dreamUFOF

Big Thief – UFOF (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

[Verse 1]To my UFO friendGoodbye, goodbyeLike a seed in the wind She’s taking up root in the sky See her flickering Her system won’t even try To defend and ripen In the radio action

[Chorus]She’ll never return againPolarize, polarizeThe seasons will bend There will soon be proof That there is no alien Just a system of truth and lies The reason, the languageAnd the law of attraction

[Verse 2]Just like a bad dreamYou’ll disappearAnother map turns blueMirror on mirrorAnd I imagine you Taking me outta here To deepen our loveIt isn’t even a fraction

[Chorus] Switch to another lens The last sunlightI don’t need any other friendsThe best kiss I ever had is the flickeringOf the water so clear and brightTo leap in, my skinAnd I could feel the reaction

[Chorus} Just like a bad dream You’ll disappear Another map turns blue Mirror on mirror And I imagine you Taking me outta here To deepen our love It isn’t even a fractionCattails

Big Thief – Cattails (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

[Verse 1]

And the clusters fell like an empty bellMeteor shower at the motel Where the empty space is a saving grace Making good time and doing wellStill the question sings like Saturn’s rings Maybe she knows and she won’t tell

Caroline, Caroline I never could leave you to struggleHold the line, hold the lineI’ll be there on the doubleIn time, in time Everyone does see trouble

[Chorus] And you don’t need to know why when you cry You don’t need to know why You don’t need to know why when you cry

[Verse 2] Violet’s eyes, Violet plays Going back home to the Great Lakes Where the cattail sways With the lonesome loon Riding that train in late June

[Chorus] With the windows wide by my side With the windows wide With the windows wide by my side

[Verse 3] And the clusters fell like an empty bell Meteor shower at the motel Where the empty space is a saving grace Making good time and doing well Still the question sings like Saturn’s ringsMaybe she knows and she won’t tell

[Chorus] But you don’t need to know why when you cry You don’t need to know why You don’t need to know why when you cry

[Verse 4] And I find you there in your country flair Middle of the river in a lawn chair With your wrinkled hands and your silver hair Leaving here soon and you know where To where the cattail sways with the lonesome loon You’ll be riding that train in late June

[Chorus] With the windows wide by your side With the windows wide With the windows wide by your side You don’t need to know why You don’t need to know why when you cry

Open Desert

[Verse 1] Vacant angel, crimson light Darkened eyelash, darkened eye The white light of the living room Leaking through the crack in the door There was never need for more Things we’re meant to understand

Crawling closer to your hand

[Chorus] To the poison image Brave surrenderKiss the water

[Verse 2] After all my teeth are gone After all the blood is drawn The white light of the waiting room Leaking through the crack in the door

[Chorus] Through the poison image Brave surrender Kiss the water

[Outro] Through the mirror, mountain view She has one green, one eye blue I can see her smiling through The white light of the living room Leaking through the crack in the door The white light of the living room Leaking through the crack in the doorThere was never need for moreThings we’re meant to understand

Orange

[Verse 1]

Orange is the color of my love Fragile orange wind in the garden Fragile means that I can hear her flesh Crying little rivers in her forearm Fragile is that I mourn her death As our limbs are twisting in her bedroom

[Chorus] Lies, lies, lies Lies in her eyes Lies, lies, lies Lies in her eyes

[Verse 2] She tells me to close and count to tenAs she wanders freely through the forestCan I close and open once again?The question that I seek for reassurance[Chorus] Lies, lies, lies Lies in her eyes Lies, lies, lies Lies in her eyes

[Verse 3]Hound dogs crowing at the stars above Pigeons fall like snowflakes at the border She kneels down and holds the frozen doveMoon drips like water from her shoulder

[Chorus] Flies, flies, flies Flies from her eyes Flies, flies, flies Flies from her eyes

[Outro] Orange is the color of my love Fragile orange wind in the gardenFragile means that I can hear her fleshCrying little rivers in her forearm Fragile is that I mourn her death As our limbs are twisting in her bedroomCentury

Big Thief – Century (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

[Verse 1] Dogs eyes in the headlights of the driveway Cool autumn rain Bugs died on your windshield on the freeway Wonder if you’ll be the same Centuries flower

[Chorus] And we have the same power We have the same power We have the same power We have the same power

[Verse 2] Moth flies in the window of the kitchen You hang up your coat Cold lips and gold eyes listen There’s something that I want you to know Turn on the shower

[Chorus] ‘Cause we have the same power We have the same power We have the same power We have the same power

[Verse 3] No resolution, no circling dove Still caught in the jaw of confusion Don’t know what I’d do for love But stay another hour

[Chorus] ‘Cause we have the same power We have the same power We have the same power We have the same power

Strange

[Verse 1]

Doesn’t it seem strange Searching for a hidden page The fairy’s cage Coming of true ageLeave the costume on the stageThe silkworm’s rageIridescent thread, beautiful and deadBillions of worms were boiled to make the bed

[Chorus] Strange, see the luna moth cry Lime green tears through the fruit bat’s eyes

[Verse 2] Scatter and destroy Every power you enjoy To lay with the void Twirling of the dime, splitting of the mind Drawing constellations ’til the stars align

[Chorus] Strange, see the luna moth cry (Cry) Lime green tears through the fruit bat’s eyes (Eyes)

[Outro] You have wings of gold You will never grow old And turquoise lungs You have never been young You have wings of gold You will never grow old And turquoise lungs You have never been young The silkworm’s rage Iridescent thread, beautiful and dead Billions of worms were boiled to make the bed Strange, see the luna moth cry Lime green tears through the fruit bat’s eyesterminal paradise

[Verse 1] Driving through the night Rings of crystal, crystal light Every gulp of the warm suburb air Betsy’s auburn, auburn hair [Refrain]

Ooh, ooh

[Verse 2] Drive into New York with me How she keeps me calm Street lights, boys and poison palms

[Refrain] Ooh, ooh

[Bridge] Drive into New York with me Big lights in the city [Refrain] Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh

See my death become a trail And the trail leads to a flower I will blossom in your sailEvery dreamed and waking hour

Jenni

[Verse 1] Too hot to breathe Too hot to breathe

Too hot to breathe

[Chorus] Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my room

[Verse 2] Her skin so bare The fragrant air Her vacant eye

[Chorus] Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my room

[Verse 3]The signal swarms The portal formsShe calls me through

[Chorus] Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my room Jenni’s in my roomMagic Dealer

[Verse 1]

Starve, magic mirror I thought the crumbs of your life wouldn’t dry It hurts to see clearer

Falling like needles, the passage of time

[Chorus] Would it hurt, would it hurt to be nearer?Heaven is stitching across me My chest is the crossingThe blood is parting all the time, but I don’t mind

[Verse 2] Carve magic dealer Bring me the company I couldn’t buy As I go cleaner Falling like needles, the passage of time

[Chorus] Would it help, would it help to go deeper? I am the photograph in you The photograph in you Still as the moment we’re lying in right now Starve, magic mirror I thought the crumbs of your life wouldn’t dryIt hurts to see clearer Falling like needles, the passage of time

Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.

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