More about: Devendra Banhart

Langurous and jazzy, Devendra Banhart has created your new downtime favourite with his latest single 'It's Not Always Funny'. The new track is the third single from his forthcoming EP Vast Ovoid.

Gentle jazz and nonchalant vocals fuse tongue-in-cheek delivery together with some very delicate finger picked folksy guitar for a lounge track that feels particularly smart. Banhart's songwriting comes out in a fountain of dreamlike layering.

"It's last call in Hell/won't you stay for a spell?" he asks like some kind of jazzy Dean Martin at Christmas.

On writing the song, Banhart said: "I was thinking about over-consumption, a kind that goes beyond objects, and starts to pig out on emotions … it's never kindness or joy is it?...I was thinking about how they say it’s important to laugh, especially when there's nothing to laugh about, I'm not sure if that’s true but it stuck with me."

The single follows 'Let's See' and 'Love Song (Helado Negro Remix)', both taken from the Vast Ovoid EP, out next week.

Vast Ovoid EP arrives 24 July via Nonesuch Records.

More about: Devendra Banhart