- Label
- Warners
- Release date
- 26th October 2009
- Genre
- Folk rock
- Buy this album
- Order CD
California weird beard goes mainstream with added wonder.
Devendra Banhart looks and sounds as if he divides his time between second hand record stores and yoga classes but is most definitely the real hippy deal.
A prolific eccentric and friend of the stars (he dated Natalie Portman last year), he is best known as a leading instigator of all things nu-folk and it’s various arms of acoustic whimsy (the kind of thing that turns up on annoyingly cute TV adverts for cars) but is actually far more interesting and innovative than that.
Here on his most accessible album to date he’s cleaned up his often meandering sound for a more conventional approach such as the Marc Bolan style glam of Baby and the wonderful 16th & Valencia Roxy Music and the wondrous ska of Foolin’.
There’s still plenty of experimentation and voyages into blissful psychedelic wonder and several songs (Angelika and Mario Lionza) that begin as downtempo folk songs before swerving into crazy Latin jazz grooves. Still oddball, still fantastic, just gentler on the mind.
More to try:
Bon Iver: A Thing Of The Past
Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
Vetiver: Tight Knit
Joanna Newsom: Ys
