| Pitchfork |
 David Wingo is better known as a soundtrack composer than as a songwriter, and you may have heard his music already in most of David Gordon Green's films or in the new Jared Hess mess, Gentlemen Broncos. Yet, as Ola Podrida, he emphasizes lyrics and music equally, using each to evoke what the other cannot express. Ola Podrida may bear some similarities to groups like Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket-- in the expansiveness and Americana textures of his songs-- but his second album, Belly of the Lion, is unlikely to get fists pumping or crowds surging: Wingo is a strong live performer, but his music remains private rather than public, introverted rather than outgoing. He projects these songs inward, creating a record that is quietly cinematic.
Belly of the Lion is more compact than Ola Podrida's 2007 self-titled debut, which means it is sharper, shapelier, and only slightly less substantial. Lyrically, the themes are identical: Every silver lining has a dark cloud, and relationships of any kind-- whether romantic, familial, or social-- are fraught with the potential for loss. What makes them especially affecting is their specificity: Wingo fills these songs with concrete nouns, proper names, and crystalline details, effectively rooting them in a real and recognizable world. "Your Father's Basement" imbues its coming-of-age story with a certain vérité, as two teenage boys blast Eric B. & Rakim and look for dirty mags behind the water heater, while the music crests into an uncertain conclusion that lends magnitude to their adolescent conspiracy. Elsewhere, Wingo's guitar shimmers as "Lakes of Wine" pans across a tableau of mysteriously related images: a notebook found on the side of the road, a phone number scrawled on a bathroom stall. There's nothing out of the ordinary here, yet Wingo invests each carefully selected object with symbolic weight....full text |
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| Culturebully |
| Austin-based musician David Wingo is back with the the hauntingly beautiful Belly of the Lion, the second LP under his Ola Podrida moniker. The disc follows up the textured acoustic melodies of his self titled debut and shows the expansive depths Wingo is capable of. The simple arrangements are deceptively dramatic and soak over the listener like waves throughout the album’s nine songs. It is ultimately a record that can, and should, be digested as a whole, with each track serving as a piece to a larger puzzle. Wingo’s day job as a film score composer is evident with the striking rise and fall of the 36 minute album as the deft instrumentation and somber lyrics paint somber and serene portraits. The music is restrained without losing a sense of emotion, in a way that only someone who has complete control of the craft would be able to do. While there are no songs that knock you off your feet like “Jordanna” did on his debut, Belly of the Lion is a truly solid album from start to finish. Its soft textures and organic feel prove Wingo to be an artist than can create music that is essentially simple and straight forward, yet still deeply profound....full text |
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| Sputnikmusic |
David Wingo wasn’t always Ola Podrida. He began as a composer, getting his feet wet by scoring three of indie director David Gordon Green’s more critically acclaimed films – George Washington, All The Real Girls, and Undertow – as well as The Guatemalan Handshake. Coincidentally, The Guatemalan Handshake features Will Oldham (Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) in a supporting role, and although the two share noticeable similarities in their singer-songwriter project, Wingo showcases a different element of the folk spectrum than Oldham, one that is warmer, and gleaming with distant majesty.
Folk, as a genre, has always had an inherent advantage when it comes to three things: protest, nostalgia, and romanticism. Nothing relates stronger than a man and his guitar; the grassroots simplicity of it all combined with the intimacy it creates are the perfect premise for a message, of any nature. Bob Dylan sang of peace and protest, Nick Drake sang of depression and loneliness, and Ola Podrida? Wingo leads Belly of the Lion through adolescence, using gentle acoustic strumming and sweeping soundscapes to recreate the rural south of his childhood....full text |
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