In the time between Masterpiece and now, the foursome have built up a significant legend around their operations, which is extraordinarily hard to do today. You also don’t need to know a single thing about Big Thief to fully appreciate this music, though it helps to understand just how far the Brooklyn band have come since their debut in shortening the distance from their music to your marrow. Though it bears the gravitas of a conceptual art piece, its 20 tracks are linked only by the distinct chemistry of the people who bring them to life.

There’s no hook to color its coverage: no illicit backstory behind its creation, no tears or emergencies worth covering, no friction between bandmates looming in its shadow. It’s not something that requires several paragraphs worth of context to “get it”. It’s not a bold new direction or a foray into unknown waters, other than the prospect of bundling two separate vinyl records into a sleeve together. 10.B ig Thief‘s fifth record, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You, is a lot of things, so perhaps it’s best to start by stating what it’s not. Is his performance among the best ever? TheGrio counts down the top 10 “Tiny Desk” performances ever. Juvenile, who didn’t even know what “Tiny Desk” was just a few months ago, delivered one of the best editions of the year, garnering nearly two million viewers on YouTube after just three days.

Not only has “Tiny Desk” been a place for artists to promote new music, but it’s also provided artists like Usher, Babyface, and most recently, Juvenile with a widely reverberating renaissance. Within a 15-to-25-minute timespan, artists who have appeared on “Tiny Desk” have gotten very creative with how they present their music to both the small live audience and the online audience. Since then, over 1,000 artists have huddled together with their respective accompaniment within the small confines of a personal workspace at NPR’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

NPR started its “Tiny Desk” concert series in April 2008 as part of its All Things Considered department. With artists like Juvenile, Usher, and Babyface having career revivals on NPR’s “Tiny Desk” concerts, theGrio counts down the top 10 best performances of all time of the online concert series.

The big thief npr tiny desk