The song Simulation Swarm released January 19th 2022, it is an amazing story told by Addrienne Lenker the lead singer of Big Thief, it covers themes of connection and pain. She sings about her lost brother whom she was separated from in the hospital, she is desperate to reunite with the brother she never knew, she never saw. The song is heavily symbolic and full of vivid imagery, describing the sterile flickering lights of the hospital and describing her dreamt reunion with her brother.
This song is significant to me as my brother is the one who introduced me to this song and to Big Thief / Adrienne Lenker in general. We listened to this song together often and it is still a song I love to this day.
Simulation Swarm - Big Thief
2022
I tried to tell you
I didn't know how to stay
You believe she can see through
Cutting at the silent clay
A relief, beckon deep blue
Fettered in the magnet sun
Eat the gun as it feeds you
Spitting up the oxygen
Once again
Once again
Once again, empty horses
Gallop through the violet door
Follow red, crooked courses
Shadows on the moonlit floor
O my stars, winged creatures
Gathering in silken height
Like the last human teachers
Once again, we must bleed new
Even as the hours shake
Crystal blood like a dream true
A ripple in the wound and wake
You believe, I believe too
That you are the river of light
Who I love, that I cling to
In the belly of the empty night
From the 31st floor of the simulation swarm
With the drone of fluorescence
Flicker, fever, fill the form
With a warm gush, now I wanna touch
Like we never could before
I'd fly to you tomorrow, I'm not fighting in this war
I wanna drop my arms and take your arms
And walk you to the shore
I remember building an energy shield
In your room, like a temple
Swallows in the windless field
Very thin, with your mother
Tall as a pale green tree
Very wild, bright as winter
Rising with a prism key
And a child to deliver
Taken with the blood and vine
As the first little angel
Little Andy, soft in your newborn skin
Only one, little Andy, will you return again?
I believe we can renew
And you could be my brother
Once again, fall asleep with our backs against each other
You believe, I believe too
That you are the river of light who I love
That I sing to in the belly of the empty night
From the 31st floor of the simulation swarm
With the drone of fluorescence
Flicker, fever, fill the form
With a warm gush, now I wanna touch
Like we never could before
I'd fly to you tomorrow, I'm not fighting in this war
I wanna drop my arms and take your arms
And walk you to the shore
I'd fly to you tomorrow, I'm not fighting in this war
I wanna drop my arms and take your arms
