OLA PODRIDA > Belly of the Lion

OLA PODRIDA

Belly of the Lion

(WESTERN VINYL)

[Rating: 3.5 stars]

For better or worse, Ola Podrida’s reputation will undoubtedly be peppered with name drops intended to pigeonhole the Brooklyn songwriter alongside the likes of Bon Iver or Band of Horses. It partly makes sense, as their second LP Belly of the Lion dabbles in deceptively predictable indie folk-isms: softly muttered, confessional poetry set to mercurial acoustics couched in mood-setting chamber sonics. But just as David Wingo’s main trade as a film composer lends only peripheral context to his work as Ola Podrida, such codification hardly conveys the simple heartache Wingo strums across every one of this album’s nine tracks with reassuring ease. There are plenty of reasons to ignore this one, but far more to actually listen.