The title, the number of tracks (20!), the duration (80 minutes!), all scream: epicness! So the central hypothesis of this review would be: does it live up to its premise? Let’s see.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (from now on Dragon) is Big Thief’s 5th album, coming after the double release in 2019 of UFOF and Two Hands. The approach is curious now, because this is by all means a double album, and most importantly it showcases the versatility of the band just like its two predecessors did. What Dragon now proves is that the band can pack their outstanding flow of melodies and instrumental traits with utmost cohesiveness without jeopardizing their strive for ecelctic approaches of rock music.

What makes this record work and sound so solid despite its wide-reaching ambition is that it was always concieved as it is. Recorded during the pandemic in 5 different places with 4 different engineers, produced by the band’s drummer James Krivchenia, Dragon is a testament to the band’s intention to explore their internal interactions at play, the many different ways they can redefine or transform their sound as they move forward in their already singular career. Of course, this is all spearheaded by Adrianne Lenker’s significant vision which is frequently esoteric but nevertheless deeply arresting.

Lenker, by the way, is on an impressive hot streak of releases in the last five years with four great records with Big Thief (Dragon included) and two excellent solo LPs with 2018’s abysskiss and 2020’s Songs (and Instrumentals). On Dragon she doesn’t hesitate and keeps her words equally aching and inspiring, something that is evident from the beginning. ‘Change’ is a gentle, acoustic guitar ballad about the aftermath of a relationship and moving on after that, a task that is never easy because, as Lenker sweetly describes: “Would you smile forever, never cry/While everything you know passes?”. What is amazing about her narratives is that she is always trying to concoct phrases of effervescent vocabulary while building songs as relatable as the melodies crafted by the band.

Then comes ‘Time Escaping’, a rhytmic, engaging track, with a cacophonous group of percussions in the background, propulsing a song which seems a collection of verses all related to time, but not between them. Here Lenker harnesses a heavy use of rhyme to outstanding results. Definitely a highlight. Something that could be said of the first third of the album, too. In a move that seems to benefit the album instead of diminish its potential, Big Thief decided to pre-release 6 of the first 7 tracks of Dragon, with the exception of the title track. While that precisely amped up the hype of the record, the fact that you could hear almost nothing new at the beginning makes it all the more intriguing. Speaking of which, the title track showcases the first case of, to put it simply, experimentation. Surrounded by grounded, strong folk-rock songs, ‘Dragon’ appears more ethereal and floating, with Lenker’s voice echoing, reminiscent of the stratospherical tendencies of UFOF.

Before you reach the middle of the album, you get the violin-featuring ‘Spud Infinity’, the slow country ballad ‘Sparrow’ and the marvelous ‘Little Things’, one of the best and most sonorous moments on the record. ‘Flower of Blood’, with the drums high in the mix and its reverby guitars, including a distorted solo by Buck Meek, is definitely the most noisy moment in the record, highlighting the band’s talent when it comes to craft racuous rock when they need to, something intrisic to their live performances. The song doesn’t rely solely on its intrumentation though, with Lenker affectingly letting a loved one know what she feels when they touch her. This track is followed immediately by ‘Blurred View’, a track that sounds like quiet industrial rock, superficially contacting trip-hop. The mix feels, well, blurred as the percussions are more mechanic, and Lenker’s voices is hushed.

These two tracks close the first part in a darker note, but are the actual evidence of what Big Thief prepared for the album and its intention. And Dragon only shines brighter because of this. The live-recorded country stomp ‘Red Moon’ (see above the video of recording of the LP’s take) seems like the argument being made of how this band’s song-building work, especially because of its completely different aesthetic compared to its two predecessors.

After this is when Dragon actually has to makes its case for itself. And I’m happy to inform that it brilliantly achieves this. After the simple ‘Dried Roses’ comes another track that was previously showcased, ‘No Reason’. A carefully composed finger-picked guitar line carries an unforgettable melody, which is only broken by a glowing flute solo, making the track sound even more wholesome. Dragon does not hesitate and brings the subdued indie rock of ‘Wake Me Up To Drive’ and the 2000s folk embracing aesthetic of ‘Promise is a Pendulum’ and ‘12,000 Lines’.

‘Simulation Swarm’ yet another tease for Dragon, is also stellar. Its steady rhythm, looping guitars, growing coda, and relentless flow of its chorus remind me of the more tight tracks on 2017’s Capacity. Here again Lenker uses extensive imagery to describe and express her feelings after suffering a series of intense experiences and her upbringing. This one is followed by my favorite song out of the ones that weren’t released before the album, ‘Love Love Love’. Another piece of propulsive indie-rock, the track borrows the haphazard nature of Two Hands, and its inherent jam-like instrumentation. ‘Release, my love!’ shouts Lenker by the end, the loudest you’ll hear her in the whole record.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is ultimately a heavy affair. For this writer it took more than two listens to grasp its scope and actually be able to meet it in its own terms. As I mentioned, its conception is obvious, and it couldn’t be any other way, a factor that helps it ride steadily going always forward, because Big Thief is a band fully aware of each of its members’ strengths and the power Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia have as a unit. 5 records in, Lenker’s songwriting is still the beating heart of the band’s music, and it inevitably infuses Dragon with warmth, depth and purpose.

So, it is epic? Yes, but it is much more too. These days we rarely have an album as lengthy but greatly accomplished and cohesive as this one. February saw the release of two other rock albums equally ambitious: Black Country, New Road’s Ants From Up There and Beach House’s Once Twice Melody, but what Big Thief achieved with Dragon excells just because it feels seamlessly organic, flowing swiftly with intention and injecting ideas almost every step of the way. I personally don’t think we should praise it for fulfilling expectations but because Big Thief puts to work their superb musicianship and we are rewarded with being witnesses of its remarkable outcome: an expansive space where time does escape.