“Not” by Big Thief

"Not" was the first single from Two Hands, Big Thief's fourth album, put out by 4AD on August 13, 2019 as the album was announced, and it's the band at a full, frayed stretch. Adrianne Lenker wrote it around a trick of negation, building nearly every line on a denial, so the thing at its center is defined only by what it isn't.

The band had been playing it since a March 2018 show at Point Éphémère in Paris and fussed over getting the recording right, finally cutting it again at Sound City in Van Nuys with Andrew Sarlo producing, engineering and mixing. Lenker's voice frays at the edges, James Krivchenia's drums and Buck Meek's guitar churn beneath her, and the back half drops the words altogether for a Lenker guitar solo that grinds and wails. It earned Grammy nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.

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