Vashti Bunyan
Issue #26
Lookaftering (DiCristina)
By Audra Schroeder
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 1:08pm
The word “timeless” is often used when talking about Vashti Bunyan’s music. Since her recent renewal (due in part to the praise of fan and friend Devendra Banhart) and the U.S. release of her 1970 album, Just Another Diamond Day, Bunyan has collaborated with Banhart, Animal Collective, Four Tet, and opened for Stephen Malkmus. She’s connected with a whole new generation, one that has come to embrace her fragile, beautifully spun folk musings.
On Lookaftering, her first album in 35 years, her sound hasn’t changed a bit. Opener “Lately” is a breezy, dusty song with softly plucked guitar mixing with her crystalline vocals. “Against the Sky” revisits Bunyan’s fixation on nature, and possibly references the trip she made, by horse and cart, to live in folk-singer Donovan’s utopian community (“Whatever brought me over here / You were the main contender”) in the late 1960s. The rapturous, haunting “Turning Backs” ebbs and flows into lush, green orchestrations, as does “Same But Different.” The quiet “Brother” starts off with her hushed declaration, “Isn’t it strange, back here again,” whispered in our ears. The last track, “Wayward Hum,” is Bunyan humming the album’s earlier song, “Wayward,” and it’s just the most delicate thing.
As the title infers, Lookaftering is an album of memories and reflections. Yet, Bunyan’s not turning back the clock, instead, she’s existing in some rarefied realm where it’s just her and a guitar, and it’s totally pure.
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