Vetiver
Tight Knit

Has it ever happened to you to have a song that can describe a moment, good or bad, of your life? It happened to me, and it was precisely a piece by Vetiver, the band led by Andy Cabic, often joined by Devendra Banhart. The name derives from a plant, vetiver, from which fragrant essences are extracted.

"Tight Knit" (literally "Tight Knit Work"), is the fourth album, if you exclude the EP "Between", by Vetiver after the eponymous "Vetiver", "To Find Me Gone", and "Thing of the Past". It is, in my humble opinion, the most successful.

The goal set by Cabic and company is to make you relax, with a feeble and pleasant voice, or with the melodies woven by the guitars (whether acoustic or electric) that open the album with the ballad "Rolling Sea". Every song can take you back in time and make you remember that summer day on the beach with friends, or that evening illuminated only by the stars, and why not, that boring school day, in which, however, something happened (I'll leave it to you to decide what) that changed the course of the day. "Sister" flows pleasantly, and you can't tell if you're hearing choirs or if it's a wind instrument playing in the distance. You feel like you're sucked into the blue forest of the cover, walking slowly, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. Slightly livelier is definitely "Everyday" which recalls certain summer afternoons spent at sea (but as mentioned before, everyone puts in the memory they want), but it's nothing worth getting agitated about since shortly after you'll be met with "Through The Front Door" which at one point seems to explode with all those strings and guitars all together, while you're still in that blue forest, trying to figure out where the sound is emanating from, and slowly you're getting lost.

The next track, "Down From Above" poses a risk you should already be aware of: you might fall asleep, but not from boredom, rather due to the atmosphere emitted by the guitars, the soft distorted synth at the beginning, or simply because you needed that final touch to close your eyes and start dreaming. However, Vetiver reserved 2 of the best pieces, so it's not advisable to fall asleep: you'd miss the folk country of "On The Other Side" or the best track of the album, the moment (if it can be defined as such) rock: "More Of This". "More Of This" is the only track where you can get up for a moment and stretch your legs a bit: boogie rhythm, lively guitars, choruses that multiply by 1000 in the end and guess where you are? In the blue forest (I might sound obsessed with this blue forest, but it's to make you understand the magical atmosphere present in the album). The group then indulges in a small reggae song, with distorted guitars, brass with a swing flavor, and a slow, cadenced rhythm: "Another Reason To Go". Another favorite track of mine, as well as the one that emits the most magic, is "Strictly Rule" with its organ, its disarming tranquility, and its almost perfect melody (perfection doesn't exist).

Then there's the song I was talking about at the beginning, the one that made me experience a moment where it seemed like I was REALLY in the forest of the cover, namely "At Forest Edge" ("At the Edge of the Forest" indeed): I was in Brazil on vacation, and there was a blackout in the hotel. So I went out to see what was happening, and at some point, the song started. The garden by the pool was full of plants never seen anywhere else, and I felt... I can't say it, like in another world, lost among the trees, while a group of hippies sang harmonies somewhere.

"Tight Knit" is not perfect, however, as if you were looking for energy you can only find it in "More of This" and someone might get bored even before finishing. But if you want to disappear from the world for about forty minutes, or you want something magical, "Tight Knit" is certainly the best available. Do you know of a more harmless way to be in a dream?

Rating: 4.5

Best tracks: On The Other Side, More Of This, Strictly Rule