„The singer still takes a lot of tonal detours on Mala, but that’s the sound of creative freedom for a songwriter who’s never been afraid to follow his whims to epiphanies, dead ends and many points in between.“
Ho, ho, that’s a fine album: laid-back, skeletal (with some well-dosed sweetness in the arrangements, no bones alone), soft with the famous edge. Devendra Banhart succeeds in offering a song cycle with an ongoing mood of lighthearted darkness, surreal wit, some brazilian moments. And a cover I like to look at. There’s a guitar, a singer, some other sounds, no big deal. „I created a studio right behind the appartment I rented in LA and soundproofed it myself. I didn’t do a great job so we ended up accidentally recording birdsong. so these seemingly digital sounds are organic in origin. What sounds like syhth, is actually a bird.“ You can listen to „Mala“ now, on www.npr.org. (M.E.)