Review: Big Red Machine’s How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? Is a Group Effort

The atmospheric, improvised song sketches that comprised Big Red Machine’s self-titled 2018 debut were exactly what one might expect from a couple of indie guys—the National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon—seeking an outlet for extemporaneous ideas not suited for their main gigs. Since then, Dessner’s heavy involvement in Taylor Swift’s Folklore and its follow-up, Evermore, has resulted in a meteoric rise in profile for the musician and producer. So, in reconvening Big Red Machine, Dessner had two options: double down on Big Red Machine’s experimental bent, cementing the band as an outlet for his and Vernon’s more heterodox ideas, or try to capitalize on the broader audience that’s suddenly taken an interest in his work.

It seems that Dessner decided to opt for the latter, as How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? leans into traditional song structures and clean, fully fleshed-out arrangements, and features guest vocals by none other than Swift herself. In typical Dessner fashion, the album is an often somber affair, with a few minor stylistic detours. In a world where the sedate, pastoral folk-rock of Folklore can become the best-selling music of its year, Big Red Machine’s sophomore effort is by definition a mainstream pop album.

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is certainly far less insular than its predecessor, which was recorded largely by Dessner and Vernon on their own and highlighted the duo’s idiosyncrasies. Here, a full stable of guest vocalists and songwriting collaborators results in a much broader musical palette. In that, the album most strongly resembles not Folklore, but the National’s I Am Easy to Find. In fact, some of the same singers appear on both albums, including Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, and This It the Kit’s Kate Stables.

So while Vernon technically remains the lead singer on Big Red Machine’s latest effort, and puts an indelible mark on several tracks (like the jazzy “Birch” and the Auto-Tune-heavy “Easy to Sabotage”), he steps back to let the guests put their distinct imprint on the album. Vernon might have been tempted to muck up the Bob Dylan and the Band-style country-rock of “Phoenix” in the interest of defying conventionality, but in the hands of Fleet Foxes’s Robin Peckinold, the track just plain swings. And on “Renegade,” co-written by Dessner and Swift, the latter’s unmistakably fluidic vocal cadences and melodic instincts take center stage.

For the first time in his career, Dessner even lends his own thin but affable voice to a few tracks, including “Brycie,” an ode to his twin brother and National bandmate. Unfortunately, the song’s lyrics, while no doubt deeply felt, are surprisingly puerile: “You take me high, you lay me low/You know my thoughts before I know.” Maybe that’s intentional, in keeping with the album’s recurring themes of childhood memory and mourning lost innocence and cementing How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? as, above all, Dessner’s baby.

It should come as no surprise to those familiar with Dessner’s music that the album features a number of ballads built on sad, simple piano melodies. Featuring lead vocals by Anaïs Mitchell and stunning background vocals by Vernon, “Latter Days” works as both a paean to the end of childhood and a reflection of our apocalyptic times: “I recall it all forever/How we sheltered in our place/And we called each other lovers/In the latter days.” For the most part, though, it’s the album’s more stylistically adventurous songs—like the propulsive “Easy to Sabotage” and “Reese,” which hits on a very particular sort of ’70s-style jazz-inflected folk-rock also recently explored by the likes of Clairo and St. Vincent—that leave the greatest impression.