Stream: Devendra Banhart, ‘Middle Names’

Daiana Feuer on September 21st, 2016

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devendra-banhart-by-jon-beasley-and-isabelle-albuquerque — Devendra Banhart (photo by Jon Beasley and Isabelle Albuquerque)

Devendra Banhart plays Sept. 27 at Club Bahia (tickets on sale today), celebrating his new album, “Ape In Pink Marble,” being released by Nonesuch Records on Sept. 23. It’s his second release with Nonesuch, and the ninth album of Banhart’s career, which began in 2002 with “Oh Me Oh My… The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Love Songs of the Christmas Spirit.” Written and recorded here in L.A., Banhart worked on the record with Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, longtime friends and collaborators. This new one is all kinds of gentle whispers, songs for lovers, for Taiwanese women in lime green, for birthdays alone, for things you think about while driving around Los Angeles, and it’s populated by real and fictional characters living in Banhart’s mind. There are a few dedications, one to Jonathan Richman, whose chords Banhart finds very romantic, another to Asa Ferry of Kind Hearts & Coronets, who passed away 10 months ago, called “Middle Names.” Banhart says, “I loved him very much. He had not passed away when I started writing ‘Middle Names.’ It was initially about thinking I saw him waiting at a bus stop, and then the feeling of knowing we were both wandering through the city, possibly only a block away from each other but not knowing it, the feeling of alone together.” The song is a soft, sweet lullaby. The second single from the album, “Saturday Night,” follows suit with delicate instrumentation, a machine beat, and wistful, caressing lyrics.

||| Stream: “Middle Names”