Devendra Banhart: Ma 12"

Ma is Devendra Banhart's first album since 2016's Ape in Pink Marble. Bursting with tender, autobiographical vignettes, the Nonesuch release displays a shift from the sonic experimentation of his previous albums to an intricate, captivating story-telling and emotional intimacy. Banhart favors organic sounds to accompany his voice and guitar here with the arrangements bolstered by strings, woodwinds, brass, and keyboards. Lead single "Kantori Ongaku" translates from Japanese to "country music" and is a nod to experimental pop legend Haruomi Hosono, a founding member of the influential electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra. The simply titled Ma is Banhart's third album for Nonesuch, one that addresses – often in a beguilingly oblique way – the unconditional nature of maternal love, the desire to nurture, the passing down of wisdom, the longing to establish the relationship of mother to child, and the consequences of that bond being broken. Banhart doesn't approach the album's maternal t