Devendra Banhart

"Mi Negrita"

BY Alex HudsonPublished Feb 7, 2013

Devendra Banhart will release his latest LP, Mala, on March 12 through Nonesuch, and now he's given us another taste of the collection with the album cut "Mi Negrita."

This gentle ditty features acoustic, bossa nova-tinged strumming and Banhart singing in Spanish. It's a little less quirky than some of the other material we've heard from Mala.

Banhart said in a statement, "In Spanish, I can have a lot more flexibility. I have a limited vocabulary — in English and in Spanish — but with Spanish I can get more into the sound of the words, I can have more fun with it. I can even get more autobiographical in Spanish. I feel comfortable revealing more, expressing something sincere about trauma or pain, which is not really a space I'm comfortable occupying. I can take things further in Spanish."

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