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Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You is the fifth studio album by the American band Big Thief, released as a double album through 4AD on February 11, 2022. Produced by drummer James Krivchenia, the album features 20 songs which were recorded over five months in five different locations across the United States. The album's release was preceded by six single releases. It received universal acclaim from critics upon release and entered the top forty in several territories, including Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
Studio album by Big Thief
Released	February 11, 2022 (2022-02-11)
Recorded	April–December 2020[1]
Studio	The Elf Inn (Westhampton, Massachusetts) Flying Cloud (Upstate New York) Five Star (Topanga, California) MusicGardens – Studio in the Clouds (Colorado) Press On (Tucson, Arizona)
Genre	Indie folk[2] folk rock[3] Americana[4] country rock[5]
Length	80:13
Label	4AD
Producer	James Krivchenia
Big Thief chronology
Two Hands (2019) Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (2022)
Singles from Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
"Little Things" / "Sparrow" Released: August 10, 2021 "Certainty" Released: September 7, 2021 "Change" Released: October 6, 2021 "Time Escaping" Released: November 16, 2021 "No Reason" / "Spud Infinity" Released: December 14, 2021 "Simulation Swarm" Released: January 19, 2022

Background

In 2019, Big Thief left Saddle Creek and signed to 4AD, releasing two studio albums: U.F.O.F. in May 2019 and Two Hands in October 2019.[6] The albums were the band's most successful and acclaimed to date: U.F.O.F. received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album[7] and both albums appeared on the Billboard 200 chart, with Two Hands peaking at 113.[8] Their song "Not" from Two Hands was named by many publications as one of the year's best songs[9][10][11] and was nominated for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.[12] Big Thief toured in support of the albums until March 2020, when their European tour was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[13] Drummer James Krivchenia released a solo album titled A New Found Relaxation in June 2020.[14] In October 2020, Lenker released two solo albums: Songs and Instrumentals.[15] Guitarist Buck Meek released his second solo album Two Saviors in January 2021.[16]

Recording

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You album was produced by drummer James Krivchenia, who conceived the concept behind its recording.[17] In late 2019,[17] while at a hotel in Copenhagen, Krivchenia presented the band with the concept that they would travel to four different locations: Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon in California, the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and the Colorado mountains. They would record at four different studios with four separate engineers, and go to each place with a specific sonic plan in mind.[18] Krivchenia's intent was to capture a full expression of Lenker's songwriting and the band onto a single album.[17] Krivchenia's production handling also marks the band's first album not produced by their longtime collaborator Andrew Sarlo.[19]

The band recorded over the span of five months, resulting in 45 complete songs which were ultimately edited down to the album's 20 tracks.[17] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the band initially quarantined in the Vermont woods for two weeks in July 2020.[20] The first session was in July and August 2020 at Sam Evian's Flying Cloud Recordings in Upstate New York. The second session was with Shawn Everett in October 2020 at Five Star Studios in Topanga, California.[1][17] The third session was with engineer Dom Monks, who previously engineered U.F.O.F. and Two Hands; the session took place in November 2020 at MusicGardens – Studio In The Clouds in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado,[1][17] located just outside Telluride.[19] The fourth and final session was in December 2020 at Scott McMicken's Press On Studio in Tucson, Arizona.[1][17] Mat Davidson, a former member of the Low Anthem and a longtime friend of the band who performs under the moniker Twain, was invited to contribute to the recordings in Arizona.[17] Davidson had previously featured on the band's second studio album, Capacity (2017),[21] with his vocals and fiddle performances featuring heavily throughout the Arizona Dragon New Warm Mountain recordings, marking the first time the band incorporated a fifth instrumentalist for such a substantial contribution.[17] The album also features recordings from a fifth location, in April 2020 at The Elf Inn in Westhampton, Massachusetts.[1]

Release and promotion

On April 22, 2021, Lenker announced a series of solo tour dates for November and December 2021.[22] On May 11, 2021, Big Thief announced North American tour dates for September and October 2021.[23] On June 8, 2021, the band announced a European tour from January–March 2022.[24] However, the European tour dates were rescheduled.[25]

On August 10, 2021, Big Thief released the songs "Little Things" and "Sparrow". The singles marked the band's first new music since the release of the 2020 single "Love in Mine", an outtake from Two Hands.[26] On September 7, 2021, the band released another song, titled "Certainty",[27] followed by another, named "Change", on October 6. They also announced plans for a North American tour slated for April and May 2022.[28]

In the November 2021 issue of Mojo, Big Thief revealed plans to release a 20-track double album in early 2022.[20][29] On November 16, 2021, the band confirmed the album's title Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You and February 11, 2022, release date.[17] On December 14, 2021, Big Thief released the singles "No Reason" and "Spud Infinity".[30] On January 19, 2022, "Simulation Swarm" was released as the album's final single.[25]

Title

The album is named after the lyrics in its title track "Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You", which Lenker first performed live in early 2019.[31]^{[better source needed]}

The same lyrics also appear in Lenker's song "Anything", from her solo album Songs (2020).[32]

Dragon in the new warm mountain
Didn't you believe in me?

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.4/10[33]
Metacritic	87/100[34]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[35]
Exclaim!	9/10[36]
The Independent	[37]
Mojo	[38]
NME	[39]
Pitchfork	9.0/10[3]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Sputnikmusic	3.8/5[40]
The Times	[41]
Uncut	9/10[42]

Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You was released to critical acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 87, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[34] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[33]

The album received a 9.0 out of 10 rating from Pitchfork, with reviewer Andy Cush calling it a "20-song epic of kaleidoscopic invention, striking beauty, and wigged-out humor, rambling far beyond the bounds of their previous work."[3] Peter Watts of Uncut called it a "landmark" album, writing, "Adrianne Lenker's genius has fully blossomed on this monumental double LP, which seamlessly blends her ambiguous melodies and absorbing narratives with a yearning for classic Americana and the band's indie-rock leanings."[42] Ethan Shanfeld of Variety praised the album's "spirit of experimentation," writing, "If the ethereal folk of U.F.O.F. and earthy indie-rock of Two Hands indicated each end of Big Thief’s sonic spectrum, Dragon posits an entirely new axis."[43] James McNair of Mojo praised the album's "admirable ambition" but criticized its lack of stylistic cohesion as being jarring at times.[38] Helen Brown of The Independent gave the album a perfect five-star rating, writing, "In a market saturated with arty folk rockers, Big Thief stand out not by doing things weirder, but by doing them better." Brown praised Lenker's "questing outward gaze and quirky lyrical choices" and her "beady-eyed magpie knack for catchy melodies."[37] Kaelen Bell of Exclaim! praised the "astonishing" effectiveness of the album's sonic diversity, writing that the songs "feel in conversation rather than competition, linked by the band's near-mythic symbiosis and Lenker's durable writing. Her songs are stretched, knotted and vaporized across the record, buried in instrumentation and effects on "Time Escaping" and "Flower of Blood" only to be dusted clean, naked as the day on the spellbinding "The Only Place" or "Promise Is a Pendulum"."[36] Writing for No Depression, John Amen praised the album, concluding, "Lenker emerges as one of the more gifted melodists, subtly versatile singers, and liberated lyricists of her generation. The band demonstrate their encyclopedic absorption and seminal reconfiguration of diverse genres and subgenres as well as production styles ranging from lo-fi to hi-fi, from the garage-y to the celestial."[44]

In a less favorable review, Marcy Donelson of AllMusic wrote, "It seems unfair to call DNWMIBIY a failed experiment, as it's loaded with gems – including some of Big Thief's most free-spirited work to date – however, it lands much more like a showreel than a plotted album."[35] Tony Inglis of The Skinny wrote that the "highs here are some of the highest in the band's prolific discography", and praised the "beguiling" experimentation on the tracks "Heavy Bend", "Blurred View", "Little Things", "Time Escaping", and "Flower of Blood"; Inglis, however, criticized the album's second half, which he felt "[clumps] together without discernible personality" and was worse than any of the songs on Lenker's solo album Songs (2020).[45]

"Little Things" was ranked the fifteenth on Pitchfork's "The 100 Best Songs of 2021" list.[46] "Little Things" was awarded the Best New Track distinction by Pitchfork, who commented, "Big Thief perfect their natural ability to turn fleeting moments into unrestrained narrative."[47]

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

Chart (2022)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[48]	19
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[49]	35
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[50]	6
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[51]	60
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[52]	91
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[53]	22
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[54]	6
French Albums (SNEP)[55]	108
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[56]	24
Irish Albums (OCC)[57]	22
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[58]	21
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[59]	15
Scottish Albums (OCC)[60]	5
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[61]	52
Swedish Vinyl Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[62]	10
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[63]	35
UK Albums (OCC)[64]	15
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[65]	5
US Billboard 200[66]	31
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[67]	3
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[68]	3
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[69]	3

References

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