Would you think for a second that a guitar solo could still stun you in 2016? You certainly won’t expect it from the start of “Real Love,” a seemingly mild-mannered song from the debut album of Brooklyn’s Big Thief. In the plaintive first verse, Adrianne Lenker paints a grim portrait of domestic violence above faintly strummed chords, her voice somehow finding a childlike innocence in the scene. The narrative unfolds calmly for the next two minutes, the volume dipping and diving as Lenker shifts from pledges of devotion to moments of despair.-=-=-=-

At last, she gives up, her six strings peeling away from the band in fit of leave-me-alone annoyance. The low notes snarl and groan, like Neil Young memorializing Danny Whitten during Tonight’s the Night. That’s the first solo. The second is worse, with a few piercing notes locking into the sort of scream that’s too painful even to sing. “Real Love” is an emotionally fraught song, the kind that could hurt with a few acoustic chords and a capo. Given this treatment, though, it lashes out, commanding that you look up and bear witness.