Big Thief are heading out on a North American tour next month and today the band is releasing two new songs, “Little Things” and “Sparrow.” Both were recorded last year. It’s their first new material since 2019’s Two Hands, which was the second album they put out that year. A few months ago, the band’s Buck Meek said that their follow-up was “pretty much done.”

Both tracks were produced by Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia. “Little Things” is busy and dense. “It’s in this sort of evolving free time signature where the beat is always changing,” Krivchenia said in a press release. “So Max [Oleartchik] and I were just flowing with it and guessing where the downbeats were — which gives the groove a really cool light feeling.”

“Sparrow” is a bit more of a traditional, rambling folk song, which was recorded live in one take. “We all just scattered about the room without headphones, focused and in the music – you could feel that something special was happening,” Krivchenia said. “It was a funny instrumentation that had a really cool natural arrangement chemistry – Max on piano, Buck [Meek] providing this dark ambience, me on floor tom and snare and Adrianne in the middle of it with the acoustic and singing.”

Listen to both below.

TOUR DATES:
09/07 Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
09/08 Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI
09/10 Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
09/11 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
09/12 Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
09/14 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
09/15 Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
09/17 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Downstairs
09/18 New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre
09/20 Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
09/21 Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
09/22 Raleigh, NC @ North Caroline Museum of Art
09/24 Richmond, VA @ The National
09/25 Queens, NY @ The Governors Ball Music Festival
09/27 Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall
09/28 South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
09/30 Northampton, MA @ Pines Theatre
10/01 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10/02 Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
06/09/22 Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound

“Little Things” & “Sparrow” are out now.