Maria También

This song begins with a guitar line that feels borrowed from some imaginary 1970s Latin American road movie — the kind where the hero is dusty and undefeated, driving through landscapes with no particular urgency. Khruangbin's entire project involves the deconstruction and gentle misremembering of global musical traditions, and on this track the influence is unmistakable but filtered through their Houston-Texas-via-everywhere sensibility. Laura Lee's bass is low and round and absolutely central — it does not merely support the song, it defines the song's physical presence, that particular felt-in-the-chest quality that bass players spend careers trying to achieve. The vocals are sung in Spanish with a casualness that suggests fluency comes second to feeling, and the lyrics seem to describe something romantic and peripheral, a story told in sidelong glances rather than direct statement. Mark Speer's guitar playing is restrained in exactly the right proportion — a phrase here, a bend there, nothing excessive, the guitar functioning as conversation partner rather than soloist. DJ Johnson's drumming sits behind all of it with that impossibly laid-back pocket groove that is Khruangbin's most identifiable signature. This is music for the middle of a long afternoon when the heat has made thinking optional, for dinner parties that have passed the food stage and entered the talking-about-nothing stage.