In their publicity photos, the members of Big Thief are always situated close together, to the point where they’re often literally falling over each other, as if they are attempting to physically merge. They are more like a body, in which each part performs a specific task so that the life form can move, breathe, think and feel. It’s a cliche to liken a band to a family or a sports team - most bands are really marriages of convenience - though in the case of Big Thief these analogies don’t go far enough. From the beginning, what distinguished them was that “intangible feeling that’s conjured when musicians with chemistry assemble in a room and become something greater than the sum of their respective parts,” as I put it upon the release of Masterpiece. In their own humble way, Big Thief has aspired to greatness more than any other American rock band I can think of from the past decade. Also: maybe they weren’t delusions after all. In the years since then, I’ve come to realize that Big Thief actually did indeed have such delusions. Surely, this modest, country-leaning indie rock band couldn’t really have such delusions of grandeur.

It’s the trajectory of 99.9 percent of the artists who are lucky enough to even get noticed in the first place. But many of the bands who make my favorite albums wind up slowly fading back to obscurity after briefly bubbling up. Yes, I thought it was a great record - it was among my favorite albums of 2016.

When Big Thief called their debut album Masterpiece, I assumed it was meant to be ironic.

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Big thief bandcamp