(2020) Devendra Banhart - Vast Ovoid (EP)
Review:
Devendra Banhart is all grown up now, in his press photos fully clothed, clean and neatly barbered with a touch of grey in his beard. Gone is the half-naked hippie child who toured with early iterations of Vetiver and Joanna Newsom and recorded piercingly beautiful vignettes on Michael Gira’s answering machine. His music, too, has settled and matured. Still eccentric, but in a more grounded way, there is less of the crazy, skittery energy that animated Oh Me Oh My or, Rejoicing in the Hands. There is also less of the y’all-come inclusiveness of his New Weird America-spanning Cripple Crow; he’s tightened his circle and focused on his own considerable resources. This high summer EP, which collects three songs that didn’t quite fit on to Ma along with a Helado Negro remix of “Love Song” from the same album, feels adult and focused. Like Ma, it is rooted in Banhart’s Latin heritage and his own distinctive view of the world. Not that he’s gotten stiff or overserious. “Let’s See” is playful, fanciful, framed by raucous guitar chords but centered on Banhart’s soft, confiding voice. He has always sounded like he’s right there in the room with you, and that hasn’t changed. And yet while the song engages in surreal imagery and jittery wordplay, it moves with its own logic and purpose. Banhart has an expansive imagination, as always, but it feels like he’s in control of it, directing it, now, rather than following it willy nilly wherever it goes. “Vast Ovoid,” the title track, begins in Latin street noises, voices and car horns, a staccato patter of xylophone and a flute before any singing comes in. Banhart’s voice is layered over itself in Pet Sounds-ish vocal harmonies. It is rather complicated, with lots of interlocking pieces, but it is also a summer breeze wafting in through curtains, lovely and warm and sensual. The remix of “Love Song” is rather good. Banhart is in his best voice here, unforced and effortlessless, fluttering above an infectious bossa nova beat. Helado Negro has reinforced the lush orchestration of the original – to my ears it’s a bit too much – but the song is undeniably pretty and undeniably simpler, more disciplined and satisfying in a different way than Banhart’s freer, odder earlier songs were. Just as an aside, we writers often lose track of artists as they get more successful, sign to bigger labels and work with more important publicists. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a Devendra Banhart record, and it’s lovely to hear him still distinctly himself but better at it.
Tracklist:
01 - Let's See
02 - It's Not Always Funny
03 - Vast Ovoid
04 - Love Song (Helado Negro Remix)
Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk, indie-pop
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
