Devendra Banhart
(Warner Bros.)
What is this now, the seventh album? Seems like a perfect number, a biblical number, for an artist to drift one way or the other: the humdrum towards the experimental, and the arguably experimental towards the humdrum. Meaning only that "freak-folk" Devendra has muzzled his weird syllables and upped his production values a bit. Nothing drastic, no mass-produced toothbrushes with Devendra's face at the top. Which would be scary. In some sense this tidying-away of all the elements that scared glossy-mag critics off should only enable them to see the quality of his music more clearly - which can't be a terrible thing.
In this clearness one can hear Banhart's laid-back side in full, seventies swing, ornate with brushed cymbals, guiros and bossa nova. The acoustic riffs are still reliably warm as Cat Stevens or Mark Mothersbaugh in music director mode; "Angelika" begins so, then seems to cross-fade into Spanish and smoky jazz. This is headed up with the sunny electric funk of "Goin' Back to the Place" (you know when Devendra uses an apostrophe in a gerund, the song's goin' to be hoppin', etc.), all the way through to the Doorsy psych of "Rats", which is spliced with Hendrix and Zappa and whatever other remnants of the vintage he can fit in there. As stated, the album is a lot more middle-of-the-road than fans might be used to, but Banhart runs up old, old paths that are beaten for a reason, and combines what he learns into something that is still very much his own. Like the final track, "Foolin'" (there again!) - it's reggae. Banhart, the living ivy, doing reggae, with that slithering voice weaving into the beats making a bitching chimaera... it's the joy of hearing him work any style that makes you want to get the man drunk and take him to a karaoke night.
Nothing here to grab you by simplicity quite like "At the Hop" or "Little Yellow Spider" once might have, but a wonderful volume of lighter, bustling, party fare - that is worth as much, really, maybe just in a different currency.
Standout Tracks: "Angelika", "Chin Chin and Muck Muck", "Foolin'" MERYL TRUSSLER
