Thing of the Past

Vetiver mainman Andy Cabic’s long standing association with Devendra Banhart has seen his band lumped into the ‘freak-folk’ movement, but it’s not a tag that really fits. Closer to the Laurel Canyon stars of the ‘70’s than the likes of Antony or Joanna Newsom, Vetiver have never had the idiosyncracies of the rest of the scene in which they find themselves. Nevertheless, with Devendra’s muse deserting him of late and Joanna and Antony between albums, this represents a chance for Vetiver to step into the limelight.

Strangely, with opportunity knocking, he’s arrived with an album of largely obscure covers. Not the most ambitious of moves perhaps, but happily Thing of the Past delivers in spades. What it lacks in the oddball, it makes up for in understated gorgeousness. Covers these may be, but Vetiver have arguably never felt more like themselves: ‘Roll on Babe’ shuffles on with a gentle beauty, freak-folk high priestess Vashti Bunyan adds her distinctive pipes to dreamy lullaby ‘Sleep a Million Years’, while Loudon Wainwright III’s ‘Swimming Song’ is jaunty pop fun. But it’s on the trio of superb mid-album ballads that Vetiver really excel. ‘To Baby’, ‘Road to Ronderlin’ and ‘Lon Chaney’ ache and sigh in all the right places, giving the album its bruised heart. And if his versions of ‘Blue Driver’ and ‘Standing’ make you wonder if Cabic likes The Grateful Dead’s American Beauty a little too much, well at least they pay their respects with enough in the way of hooks.

This listener must confess to not recognising this as a covers album until informed. With names such as Ian Matthews, Garland Jeffreys and Biff Rose unfamiliar to all but the most devoted fans of ‘60’s and ‘70’s folk records, this collection should send plenty scrambling to the vaults for the source material. Such diligence is not required, however, as most will just want to luxuriate in the sheer prettiness of this collection of superb songs, lovingly recorded.