In the three year hiatus since Big Thief’s last project, Grammy-nominated album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You,” behind-the-scenes drama has led the headlines surrounding the indie folk band.

Bassist Max Oleartchik left the group last summer for “interpersonal reasons,” losing one of the strongest instruments featured in each Big Thief song. Led by frontman and lead singer Adrianne Lenker, alongside drummer James Krivchenia and guitarist Buck Meek, the band was reduced to three people for the first time in its history, but the band still was able to find some of its best moments in an incomplete state. With work from Juilliard-instructed Joshua Crumbly filling in for Oleartchik, the bass featured across “Double Infinity” was not an afterthought amidst much uncertainty.

In fact, instrumentation is what sets a lot of “Double Infinity” apart from previous albums like “Masterpiece” and “Two Hands,” projects defined by a more stripped down rock-infused tracklist. Big Thief recruited Philadelphia native Laraaji to add his iconic zither sound to “Incomprehensible” and “Los Angeles,” two of the strongest tracks on the album. 

Laraaji’s unintelligible but beautiful background vocals on “Grandmother,” the lone credited feature on “Double Infinity,” brought life to the track and created one of the most sonically mesmerizing moments on an album released this year.

While the instrumentation was beautiful, “Double Infinity” had plenty of moments that disappointed lyrically, something that has brought much acclaim to Lenker. 

Following the fourth track “All Night All Day,” a song with strong themes of beauty and love, “Double Infinity” seemed to take a major step down. The title track returned to ideals of love, but Lenker’s cadence began to feel annoying after more than four minutes. The instrumentation had very little change as the song progressed, missing the strong fusion of guitar, drums and bass that defined most of the album. 

Following the title track, “No Fear” immediately immersed the listener in a world of bass guitar. At first, I thought of how beautiful the sound was, hoping it would evolve into a song like “Incomprehensible” that was captivating through its drums and guitar, yet added strong themes about aging. 

However, the repetitive notes of bass guitar would not stop after nearly seven minutes, creating one of the most boring and stagnant songs of Big Thief’s career. I wish I could have said it was a brief and forgettable moment, but after a runtime of six minutes and 58 seconds and the same verses repeated eight and a half times, it became an interminable part of an album featuring an otherwise strong tracklist. 

Besides Lenker, the work of Krivchenia — who has added percussion to three Taylor Swift projects — on “Incomprehensible,” “Words” and “Happy With You” were strong points across the album, cementing his importance to Big Thief and modern music. Similarly, Meek who stole the show of nearly every song, perhaps had his best moment of the album in an unforeseen way: his vocals on the last track, “How Could I Have Known.” Meek’s background vocals made the love themes of the track extra captivating, especially knowing of his past marriage with Lenker.

Overall, “Double Infinity” was a quick listen and one that I will be returning to soon, especially the first four tracks. Yet, four out of nine tracks being released as singles removed much of the allure of the rollout and turned out to be highlights of the album, which would’ve been more significant had fans not been familiar with the songs already.

With the tour starting soon — catch Big Thief at the Saenger Theater on Halloween — I’m excited to see what’s in store for the band, likely in the form of a fifth Grammy nomination.