''Capacity'' is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by the American band

Big Thief Big Thief is an American indie folk band formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015. The lineup comprises vocalist-guitarist Adrianne Lenker, guitarist Buck Meek and drummer James Krivchenia. Founding bassist Max Oleartchik left the band in 2024 ...

, released through

Saddle Creek Records Saddle Creek Records is an American record label based in Omaha, Nebraska. Started as a college class project on entrepreneurship, the label was founded by Mike Mogis and Justin Oberst in 1993 (as Lumberjack Records). Mogis soon turned over his ...

on June 9, 2017. It is considered by some to be one of the best

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

releases of the 2010s.

Background and recording

''Capacity'' was recorded in a

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a men's social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 34 active chapters in the United States and Canada.FarmHouse Fraternity New Memb ...

that the band was house-sitting. With the owner out of town, the band was able to record uninterrupted for a month. The album was recorded on

analog recording Analog recording is a category of techniques used for the recording of analog signals. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and phonograph. La ...

equipment.

Music and lyrics

According to Lizzie Manno of ''

Paste Magazine ''Paste'' is an American monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publi ...

'': "Big Thief thrive on the magic they unearth seemingly from a past life. Lenker delivers poetic lines about

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

that never appear trite with a voice that ranges from gentle to fierce, always with a mother-like comfort. ..''Capacity'' draws on earth’s passing moments that are taken for granted, but it’s grounded in humanity’s brightest and darkest tendencies. Their tender, evocative indie-folk transcends any musical categorization."

Artwork

The album's cover artwork features a photograph of vocalist Adrianne Lenker's uncle holding her as a newborn.

Critical reception

''Capacity'' received critical acclaim upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s, the album has received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 81, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 15 reviews. ''

'' included the album in their list of the best indie rock albums of the 2010s. Staff writer Lizzie Manno said " he album isdirty, heartbreaking, trustworthy, gorgeous and armed with a childlike wonder and well-worn sagacity. While their 2016 debut ''Masterpiece'' offered raw charm, 2017’s ''Capacity'' has a keener eye and an intoxicating richness."

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

. Big Thief * Adrianne Lenker – vocals (all tracks), acoustic guitar (1, 2, 4–7, 9), electric guitar (2–8, 11), background vocals (2, 4, 6, 8, 11), choir (3), French press (3), mouth trumpet (7), claps (8),

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan R. Pearlman, Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the ...

(9) * Buck Meek – electric guitar (2–4, 6–9, 11), choir (3), background vocals (5, 6, 8, 9), claps (8) * Max Oleartchik – upright bass (1, 3), bass (2, 4–9, 11), choir (3) * James Krivchenia – drums (2–9, 11), percussion (2–9), choir (3), Casio SK-1 (5), bells (6), howls (6), acoustic guitar (6), claps (8, 9), lap harp (8), background vocals (9), organ (10) Additional musicians * Andrew Sarlo – piano (1), choir (3), mouth trumpet (7) * Unknown –

stairs Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps wh ...

(1) * Zoë Lenker – background vocals (4, 7, 8) * Mat Davidson – background vocals (5, 6, 9), acoustic guitar (8), pump organ (8, 10), piano (10) * Erin Birgy – howls (6) * Michael Sachs – bass clarinet (10) Technical personnel * Andrew Sarlo – production (all tracks), engineering (all tracks), mixing (all tracks) *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bishop ...

– mastering * Josh Druckman – engineering asics(8) Artwork * Josh Goleman – band photo

Notes

References

{{Authority control Saddle Creek Records albums 2017 albums Big Thief albums