heart of gold.
17/Devendra Banhart/Mala
Mala is a quiet, contemplative album that barely speaks above a whisper in places. But this does not mean Mala is a somber album, no. This still is, after all and above anything else, a Devendra Banhart record. So, as is expected, the album has a strong yet subtle sense of humor that draws you in and keeps you listening closely so as not to miss the album's strongest subject of interest: l-o-v-e. Early on, on one of the album's many highlights Never Seen Such Good Things, Mr. Banhart croons, "Love yer a strange fella, sure leave yer mark indelibly. Love yer a strange fella, won't you leave yer mark on me?..." It's these love marks and desire to be caught at the end of cupid's arrow that wonderfully underpins the gorgeously melancholic tracks that make this album whole. All of which is placed atop a musical backdrop that expands upon and gets lost within the comfortingly familiar highways of folk rock's city limits. Mala is Devendra as we know him, and Devendra as we should get used to seeing him: maturer and so sincere.
KEY TRACKS: Fur Hildegrad von Bingen/Never Seen Such Good Things/Won't You Come Over
18/David Bowie/The Next Day
19/Disclosure/Settle
20/Nine Inch Nails/Hesitation Marks
21/Tegan & Sara/Heartthrob
22/Thee Oh Sees/Floating Coffin
23/Rhye/Woman
24/Lorde/Pure Heroine
25/Savages/Silence Yourself
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