Dev Marvelous and The Bird and the Bee’s Inara George are a well-matched creative pair. Though they’re divided by a generation and by geography — Louisville and Los Angeles, respectively — both create similar strains of inviting pointillist pop. Even the pair’s crate-digging influences appear to be uncannily aligned. In a trio of charming at-home performances shared recently on Instagram, Dev Marvelous plays an acid jazz Herb Alpert remix, an off-the-cuff midnight solo Rhodes improvisation, and even a wild Eumir Deodato fusion synth solo.
Dev Marvelous explores this melange of cool sounds on “La La La,” a breezy cover of a song from The Bird and the Bee’s 2007 self-titled debut record. Elegant electric piano stabs, tinges of nouveau samba, a wormy synth and impressive vocal stacks run through the track, evoking some of the most infectious and synesthetic pop work from producer Greg Kurstin (the “Bee” to Inara’s “Bird”). Though Dev Marvelous’s take on “La La La” may bear some hallmarks of a solo production made in COVID-imposed isolation, this is bedroom pop of a different and brighter sort: pulsing, vivid, joyful.
“La La La” appears on Road Angel Project Presents: Dev Marvelous x The Bird and The Bee — a full record of The Bird and the Bee covers performed by Dev Marvelous and released via Inara George’s Release Me Records this Friday, April 16th. Proceeds from the record will benefit Sweet Relief’s COVID-19 Fund, which provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who have been impacted by Covid-19.
Follow Inara George’s Road Angel Project here, and listen to Dev Marvelous’s cover of “La La La” below.
Check out many more covers performed by The Bird and the Bee here.
