Two Hands

Following quickly on the heels of the spacey, artful U.F.O.F. -- by five months, to be exact -- Big Thief's fourth long-player, Two Hands, was recorded just days after its contrasting sister album. It is described described U.F.O.F.'s "earth twin".

However, while U.F.O.F. was tracked at a wooded facility outside of Seattle, the band deliberately moved to the 100-plus-degree environs of a desert studio west of El Paso for Two Hands. The humid-versus-dry distinction makes for a convenient musical simile, as Two Hands commits to a crisper, more jagged sound on a rawer set of indie rock songs.

Though less improvised-sounding on the whole than its predecessor, the loose Two Hands was recorded live with few overdubs by the same crew (producer Andrew Sarlo and engineer/mixer Dom Monks, though drummer James Krivchenia helped mix this time around).