any time i have a conversation with someone about Mandala (stylized as “mandala.”), it’s only a matter of minutes until their fans get brought up. their fans — the fandalas out there — are an important part to Mandala’s story, and to their music more broadly. compared to any other regional band, it’s hard to find another band with fans who are as passionate as Mandala’s fans are. but why? you can rattle off a list of good reasons: they have incredible live shows, they write good music, they interact with their fans frequently. but i think the biggest reason is a little harder to define — i think it’s because the biggest fan of Mandala is… Mandala. Mandala will be the first to advocate for themselves, to be proud of themselves, and to be confident in what they do.
that leads me to Damsel in Defense, the band’s follow-up EP to the critically acclaimed album Cash For Smiles. Damsel in Defense is the band’s best collection of songs, full stop, period. you can keep reading on if you’d like, but that’s the take home message. listen closely to the EP, and let me know when you hear a moment of doubt.
you won’t.
there’s not a moment of doubt or hesitation at all on Damsel in Defense. and that’s part of why they’re a great band. you can set aside the polished songwriting and the tight musicianship if you’d like, what will be left is conviction, confidence, and a warmth that radiates like a neutron star. these six songs feel like they just shot out of the band, fully formed, with complex lead guitar parts, multi-layered harmonies, and a bouncing rhythm section. the band’s new website opens with three sentences: “hello. we’re a band from connecticut. we make music.” and that last sentence feels like the only one that really matters to Mandala, making music and performing together.
Damsel in Defense carries on the musical journey that Mandala started years ago. the band’s buoyant rock-n-roll is part-jam band, part-soft rock, part-indie. it’ll probably draw comparisons to Vampire Weekend’s 2019 album, Father of the Bride, but Mandala has been making music like that before VW was even writing songs like this. Mandala have been ahead of the curve in that regard, and parts of mainstream indie are just now catching up with them.
here are three of my favorite moments of Damsel in Defense:
“Bowery and Bleaker”: if you’ve seen Mandala play live this year, then you know this song. Damsel in Defense kicks off with its strongest song (and probably one of Mandala’s career-best). and the gang chorus of “did i change your mind?” feels alive and grand. the song is an early introduction (or re-introduction) to how tightly wound Mandala’s jam-rock can be, with a few tempo changes, a few start-and-stops, several lead guitar riffs, and explosive melodies.
“Soldier”: while Morgan Fasanelli handles the bulk of lead vocal duties throughout Damsel in Defense, this song is nearly a duet. guitarist Abe Azab harmonizes perfectly with Fasanelli. the pairing feels so perfectly natural, likely because of the two’s long friendship (there more about it on their website that is worth a read). Fasanelli’s delivery is commanding and fiery, where Azab’s is cool and controlled. it’s one of those combinations like sweet/sour or peanut-butter/jelly. the remaining tracks of the album, “Little Sunshine” and “Blue Jeans” take further advantage of these harmonies.
“Blue Jeans”: the final track of the record, this song is a change of pace for Mandala. the most stripped-back song of the EP, it feels different than anything the band has released so far. and the final surprise is the last 30 seconds, which turns into a spoken-word recording — final invocation, a prayer, a poem. to me, to you, to the fandalas.
