The Mirror

Buck Meek — 2026

“A warm, lived-in record that finds Buck Meek sharpening his songwriter’s eye.”

Buck Meek grew up in Wimberley, Texas, the product of a household full of books, art, and music. He studied jazz in Boston, moved to New York, lived out of a van with Adrianne Lenker while the two played songs up and down the country, and eventually that partnership became Big Thief. Over the past decade, Big Thief has turned into one of the more important bands in American folk and indie rock. Meek has been there for all of it as guitarist, but his solo work has always been its own thing.

The Mirror is his fourth solo record and second for 4AD. He tracked vocals on the front porch while the band played inside, looking at them through the window. That image actually tells you a lot about where this record sits — close to the action, slightly removed from it, watching everything from a particular angle.

The record sits in the folk and country rock world but reaches past it in spots. Meek works within the normal guiderails of American folk but also travels the path of indie rock and a little jazz. Producer James Krivchenia, who also drummed on Big Thief’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, brings in modular synths and electronic textures that run underneath the live band. It is not an electronic album by any stretch, but the synths show up just enough to keep things from feeling too straightforward. The result is warm and loose, anchored by acoustic guitars, filled out by a rotating cast that includes harpist Mary Lattimore and ambient composer Alex Somers.

Meek’s previous record, Haunted Mountain, worked through love in a broader sense. The Mirror turns the lens inward. The electronic production element is also newer territory. The scattered synths give his songs some variation here but The Mirror is more about fresh arrangements than drastic changes to his sound. That record shows off some qualities you may not hear in main band which is exactly what you want to hear on a solo outing.

If you already listen to Big Thief, this is a natural next step. Beyond that, fans of Sufjan Stevens, Andy Shauf, Fruit Bats, or Fleet Foxes will find something here. Meek has some similarities in peers like Mac DeMarco and MJ Lenderman. The album’s looser moments and dry wit also bring to mind early Bonnie Prince Billy or even some of the homespun weirdness of the Basement Tapes era. The harp and synth combo on certain tracks nods toward artists like Weyes Blood or even early Joanna Newsom without sounding anything like either of them.

“Gasoline” opens the record and sets the tone immediately. It is a song about falling hard for someone before you even have a real language for it, complete with Meek inventing sounds mid-verse just to express what words cannot. “Demon” is where the album hits its highest point. Meek sits in his tunnel singing with echo and finds that his inner demons keep crawling back through the weeds. “Can I Mend It?” is the most direct song on the record, built around a fight between two people and the question of whether the damage can be walked back. “Ring of Fire” is the most immediately accessible track, a road song about missing someone at home, warm and hooky without trying too hard. “Deja Vu” closes things out on a quieter, almost haunted note, with Meek imagining calling someone he loves from whatever comes after this life, just to hear their voice.

Meek writes in plain language, but the images stick. On “Demon,” the contrast between his true self and the darker other becomes harder to tell apart. “Pretty Flowers” wrestles with the desire to come into your own without becoming someone you do not want to be, using weeds in a garden as the comparison. “God Knows Why” addresses someone who poisons the people around them out of self-loathing, and it lands without being mean about it. “Soul Feeling” is a character sketch about memory and dignity in old age that manages to say something real in very few words. The writing across the album is not trying to be clever, which is part of why it works.

The Mirror is a good record with a handful of genuinely great moments. It does not shake anything up or ask you to rethink what you know about Buck Meek, but it confirms that he is a steady, thoughtful songwriter who keeps getting better at saying what he means. The production adds real texture without getting in the way, and the performances throughout feel lived in. Where it occasionally loses ground is in its middle stretch, where a few tracks blend together before the album finds its footing again. For listeners who want something a little rougher or more urgent, this might feel too comfortable in places. But for anyone who has followed Meek’s solo work, or who came through Big Thief looking for more, The Mirror holds up.