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]



Jodi

Please 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 sing

She is both dreamer and dream

And dream, and dream, and dream





UFOF

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



[Verse 1]

To my UFO friend

Goodbye, goodbye

Like 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 again

Polarize, polarize

The seasons will bend

There will soon be proof

That there is no alien

Just a system of truth and lies

The reason, the language

And the law of attraction

[Verse 2]

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 fraction

[Chorus]

Switch to another lens

The last sunlight

I don't need any other friends

The best kiss I ever had is the flickering

Of the water so clear and bright

To leap in, my skin

And 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 fraction





Cattails

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

[Verse 1]



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 rings

Maybe she knows and she won't tell

Caroline, Caroline

I never could leave you to struggle

Hold the line, hold the line

I'll be there on the double

In 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 rings

Maybe 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 surrender

Kiss 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 door

There was never need for more

Things 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 ten

As she wanders freely through the forest

Can 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 dove

Moon 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 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





Century

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 age

Leave the costume on the stage

The silkworm's rage

Iridescent thread, beautiful and dead

Billions 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 eyes





terminal 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 sail

Every 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 forms

She calls me through

[Chorus]

Jenni's in my room

Jenni's in my room

Jenni's in my room





Magic 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 crossing

The 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 dry

It 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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