Sarina Maloy

Big Thief’s new single ‘Incomprehensible’ sounds like a dream. The first thing the listener hears when clicking play on the track is a sound meant to mimic that of a magic wand.

From this, it’s implied that the world of ‘Incomprehensible’ is not our own. On the contrary, Adrianne Lenker (frontwoman and principal songwriter of the band, alongside Buck Meek) uses the song to travel back in time to her past. The memory that the listeners visit alongside her is both worn from decades passed, and as fresh as the first time Lenker “went swimming in the lake”. 

Big Thief’s Position In The Contemporary Music Scene

It is no surprise that Big Thief is so reputable in the modern music scene – particularly with indie music fans. Their sound is a pastiche of everything the members have ever loved whilst being entirely their own.

The drum beat on ‘Incomprehensible’ is reminiscent of the song ‘Champagne Coast’ from the group Blood Orange, but Lenker’s vocal delivery also often haunts the same realm as Alvvays’ lead singer Molly Rankin. However, comparisons to her contemporaries aside, Lenker draws from a myriad of sources from a protracted period of time.

“Their sound is a pastiche of everything the members have ever loved whilst being entirely their own.”

She has expressed her love for the 1960s folk scene in an interview with Ringer, sharing that she “really admire[s] Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen – how they have such a breadth of material throughout the years, into old age.” Mitchell, as a lyricist, has clearly influenced Lenker on ‘Incomprehensible’ – it is easy to compare both her melodic timbre and lyrical delivery to those on Mitchell’s album, Blue. The song, ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’ by Mitchell, explores romantic disillusionment and the passage of time, just as Lenker does.

“In two days it’s my birthday and I’ll be thirty-three; That doesn’t really matter next to eternity; But I like a double number, and I like an odd one too; And everything I see from now on will be somethin’ new”, Lenker sings in the fourth verse of ‘Incomprehensible’, a track equally concerned with pondering the future as it is with reminiscing the past. Lenker is both terrified of the prospect of ageing, and exhilarated by it.

The Track’s Composition

During her performance at The Anthem in November 2024, Lenker shared that ‘Incomprehensible’ was written “in the car mostly”. During its composition, she mused that she “thought it was a huge rock and roll song, but realised it was so quiet and felt best that way.” ‘Incomprehensible’ works because of its whimsy.

Lenker’s story rings true – each verse feels like lying in the backseat of your parents’ car, bleary-eyed after a two hour nap. You’re in your twenties, or your thirties, and you’ve woken up to see that you’re back in your hometown after what feels like forever. You cannot sate the pit in your gut that yearns to be young again, but you’re aware that this plight is a pointless one, as you are too old now, too sentient, and can never return, even if you want to.

“Lenker accepts that an inevitable part of growing up is breaking down, and that she will survive nonetheless.”

Whilst Lenker croons that she misses “Mr. Bear and the wooden box [she] hid”, these “pointless gadgets…mean nothing now”. Nostalgia is a sickness, and it is lying to her – she yearns to feel the freedom that she did as a child, but with the knowledge that she has now. 

Adrienne Lenker’s Evolution As A Songwriter

The listener hears Lenker actively mature, changing her outlook on the uncertainty of her future verse by verse. This narrative, diaristic style of lyricism allows Lenker a more kindred connection with her listener.

She has always been an inherently visceral songwriter, with the viscerality oscillating between acerbity and heartache; at times, it harnesses both, drawing from another of Lenker’s songwriting Gods, Elliott Smith, dubbed ‘Mr. Misery’. The writer we get acquainted with on ‘Incomprehensible’ is not unrecognisable from the one we met on Masterpiece, Big Thief’s 2016 debut record. But it’s hard to imagine her ferociously screaming “How much blood is worth the draw?” as is heard on ‘Real Love’. This is not a woman in her early 20s anymore – she is growing up, and she has made peace with that. 

“You cannot sate the pit in your gut that yearns to be young again, but you’re aware that this plight is a pointless one, as you are too old now, too sentient, and can never return, even if you want to.”

Lenker accepts that an inevitable part of growing up is breaking down, and that she will survive nonetheless. This is what makes ‘Incomprehensible’ such a special track.

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Featured image courtesy of Martin Schumann on Wikimedia Commons. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here. 

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