Masterpiece by Big Thief

Masterpiece, Big Thief's debut album, came out on Saddle Creek Records on May 27, 2016, and it was cut in under two weeks in July 2015 on Lake Champlain in Essex, New York. The Brooklyn band was brand new: Adrianne Lenker singing and playing guitar, fellow founder Buck Meek on the second guitar, Max Oleartchik on bass, and Jason Burger, the drummer who would hand over the sticks to James Krivchenia once this record was out.

It roams freely, from dusty Americana to jagged art-pop to lopsided folk, with flashes of honky-tonk, grunge and ambient noise, loud guitars fraying at the edges while Lenker's voice cracks and steadies inside a single line. Her songs dig into lovesickness, abuse and mental illness, and critics heard kinship with Hop Along. The title track is the one that reached the countdowns, and Capacity followed in 2017.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.