It’s possible that my substack might just turn into an adrianne lenker fanpage. Whatever that’s fine with me.
Her band, Big Thief, recently released their new album on September 5 - interestingly enough, at the beginning of the eclipse season. According to “the internet” the first lunar eclipse on September 7 was in Pisces, which emphasized “themes of closure, release, surrender and sacrifice”. The solar eclipse in Virgo on September 25 is the “second act” that will bring “grounding and rebuilding with intention.” New beginnings…
If you are more curious about that, perhaps dm that one crystal girl you follow on instagram. I’m sure she has more to say that she would love to share with you. I only bring it up at all because I find it curiously relevant to the themes of the songs in the album, Double Infinity, which I have decided to investigate in hopes of understanding why the cover is a lime.1
The album is short, which means it is easy to listen to on repeat multiple times. I had the joy of going to Charleston last week to see Jack and Alex - two people dear to my heart. They humored my desire to listen to this record all weekend, pretty much from the moment I was picked up from the airport on saturday.
Like my weekend did, the album begins with a loved one, traveling in a car. Adrianne sets the scene of the present, but seems to get lost in her thoughts and feelings about the future - as one often does when looking out at the open road. The band introduces some subtle electricity in this first track - a sign that we are looking at their classic analogue style through the rearview mirror. It seems they have decided to embrace the modern world on their own terms with the intention of opening up infinite possibilities. We are told that “everything we see from now on will be something new”. I wonder if my quest to understand this album cover is futile, as Adrianne makes it clear that some things are not meant to be understood. “Let me be incomprehensible”. 2
Words is certainly an introduction to something new. (But also something familiar as it reminds me of an early coldplay song.) The musical production is the star of the show, which is only appropriate, as the lyrics remind us of how useless words can really be in present moments.
Words are tirеd and tense
Words don’t make sense
Words are feathered and light
Words won’t make it…. right
Sometimes it isn’t until later that we find the words to make things right, and then we can travel back to the past like we do in the next track. Los angeles takes us back to a more classic “big thief sound” as we go back in time through Adrianne’s memories. Being Jack’s favorite track, it plays in the background as we drive under mossy oak tunnels and over marshy landscapes. I watch sunlight dance in and out of magnolia leaves through the window. The three of us do some of our own time traveling as we reminisce about our memories together halfway across the world. “The ocean is bright and blue,” there too. It is rare that Adrianne offers such intimate details about her life and the three of us exhaust ourselves speculating about her romantic relationships.
But she returns to vague lyricism in All Night All Day. Beginning with a soft tambourine beat, each instrument takes a turn to fade in. And while the gentle heartbeat stays the same, the rest of the instruments seem to fade in and out. I think about the butterflies we saw in the butterfly garden this weekend and the quick beat of their wings in paradox with their slow float through the air. I wonder if one of the band members wrote this after watching butterflies dance. It’s a song about love and the “words dont make sense” allowing the listener to try and make sense of love themselves. Good luck I say.3
It is here we are introduced to the title track - Double Infinity. A quick google search tells me that the significance of double infinity is found in its spiritual representation of an unbreakable, eternal bond. One could compare the circling rinds of the lime in question to this symbol.
In classic Big Thief style, the lyrics slowly unravel the many beautiful, intertwined paradoxes of the human experience. Missing one lover while with another. Mourning a dying world while celebrating a living one. It becomes clear that this album is the exploration of the two infinities - time and space. Or what Adrianne describes as “what is formin’, what is fadin.’” We stand with her at the edge of both with No Fear.
And finally, the damn lime is mentioned in one repeated line.
“Time, round like a lime”
The passing of time is a steady theme found in every song, and here in this line it is stated explicitly. All the looking back into the past, and the anticipation of the future, is really the same thing. If time is round, it all comes back in the end in some way or another. And then we “turn it all, into rock and roll.” Grandmother is a culmination of reflections on time passing and aging. What is more rock and roll than getting older?
By this point in the trip, I am reaching a limit on how many more times I can make my friends listen to this album with me. But I can’t help but hear Happy With You in the background as a montage plays in my head. Sunlight seems to glisten in every moment we share. Off the shiny tops of colorful, buttery pastries. Off the morning dew that sits on marsh grasses. Off the soft waves of the Atlantic. My feet brush the top of the water from a fishing dock, and I relish the feeling of cool water and southern heat in these last summer days. All weekend, Jack and Alex’s steady guitar strum and drum beat love fills the air like the way the smell of rosemary beans fills the kitchen. As the Double Infinity time travel journey (and my weekend trip) comes to an end, I tell them how relieved I am to spend time with two people who are happy together.
We end where every time travel journey must end - the present. And really, what is more beautiful than the present? And what do we have in the present except love? The only thing that “lives forever” as is stated in the last song - How Could I Have Known.4 A chorus of both instruments and voices, here we have reached the rolling credits.
Cast MP Chino Alex Thompson Jack Alexander Directed by The Lani Produced by Everlasting Friendship Music by Big Thief
I suppose a lime is as good an album cover as any. (not that anyone asked me in the first place) Like its sharp taste, this album is a bright burst to the senses, cutting through to the heart of what it means to live in this world where time passes, love comes and goes, and the sun sets and rises just the same.
I have a theory that the band was subconsciously influenced by society’s embrace of lime green after “brat”, only furthering my belief in charli xcx’s powerful impact on society
Similar to the desires Samia expresses in her song Bovine Excision. “I wanna be untouchable/impossible”
Adrianne is sometimes described as this generation’s Bob Dylan in terms of songwriting. “love is just a name” is sooo parallel to the song “Love is Just A Four Letter Word” that Bob wrote for and gave to Joan. The language of the universe transcends.
Not that it’s any of my business but I often speculate that this song is a sister song to Buck Meek’s solo track - Didn’t Know You Then