Flying Wig

by Devendra Banhart

Overview

The finely polished sentimental pop Devendra Banhart drifted through on 2019's Ma was far removed from the shaky and mystical folk songs he recorded on answering machines 15 years earlier or even the disjointed tangents he stitched together a few years prior on 2016's Ape in Pink Marble. Though he's since dabbled in Grateful Dead covers and ambient expressions, Flying Wig, Banhart's first proper studio album in four years, takes his art in yet another new direction. Produced by Cate Le Bon (whose production has also guided some of the more adventurous output from Deerhunter, Wilco, and much of her own solo catalog), the album's ten songs veer between misty soundscapes, synth-driven pop, and moments of moody cinematic tension. The blend of Berlin-era Bowie instrumentation and dreamy city pop that showed up on Le Bon's Pompeii gets applied to tracks like the lush, late-night ramble "Fireflies," with distant saxophones and chorus-bathed guitar leads melting into one another. The wobbly bass line and scattershot percussion of "Nun" also evoke this wild spirit, as Banhart's vocals cruise through a strange circuit board of sweetly chaotic interlocking melodies. The whimsy and abandon that ran through so much of his earliest work is replaced with a cool, almost standoffish presence on the nearly deadpan synth pop atmospheres of tracks like "Sight Seer" or the funky midtempo lurching of "Twin." That's not to say Flying Wig is devoid of emotion. The darkly tender "Sirens" is as yearning and wounded as some of Banhart's most heart-baring songs, but he broadcasts these feelings from a removed distance, making the listener dig a little deeper to connect. Some of his inherent silliness surfaces here and there as well, especially when he's singing lovelorn, childlike melodies about losing a phone charger on the deeply Eno-indebted "Charger." The pairing of Le Bon's netherworld production and Banhart's malleable talents makes Flying Wig a weird and enjoyable ride. It's a whole new spectrum of sounds and ideas for Banhart, but it fits as one more chapter in his oft-mutating muse. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	09/22/2023
Label:	Mexican Summer
UPC:	0634457141452
Rank:	38792

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Devendra Banhart   Primary Artist,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Synthesizer
Gregory Rogove   Drums,Percussion
Cate Le Bon   Bass,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Percussion,Synthesizer
Todd Dahlhoff   Bass
Samur Khouja   Vocals (Background)
Nicole Lawrence   Guitar,Pedal Steel
Evan Hinshelwood   Saxophone

Technical Credits

Devendra Banhart   Composer
Cate Le Bon   Composer,Producer
Heba Kadry   Mastering
Samur Khouja   Mixing,Engineer
Nicole Lawrence   Composer
Dana Trippe   Photography
Alex Tults   Design