Freewheeling folk-rock Devendra Banhart marches to his own beat
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Fabulous Furry Freak Brother: Idiosyncratic folk-rocker Devendra Banhart and his five-piece band play the Higher Ground Ballroom on Thursday. Photo by Lauren Dukoff |
Toolbox
By TOM HUNTINGTON Arts Correspondent - Published: November 13, 2009
An unwilling poster boy for the so-called "freak-folk" movement, idiosyncratic Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart visits Higher Ground Thursday on the heels of his major label debut album, "What Will We Be."
Released two weeks ago on Warner Bros. Records, the disc – Banhart's seventh – was called "the best he's ever made" by Rolling Stone, while Spin dubbed it "the most consistently satisfying full-length he's made."
Raised in both Venezuela and Los Angeles, Banhart, 28 – who is also an accomplished artist — has been garnering accolades for his homespun recordings since the release of his debut album in 2002.
"What Will We Be," a follow-up to Banhart's acclaimed 2007 album, "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon," is a sprawling 50-minute disc and a decided departure from his previous releases.
Opening track "Can't Help but Smiling" shines on breezy, blessed-out simplicity, while the compelling "Angelika" follows with a Cat Stevens-like acoustic first half that segues seamlessly into hypnotic tropicalia.
The bouncy and infectious "Baby" and the beautifully laid-back "Goin' Back" serve up some of Banhart's most accessible songs to date, while the full-on glam-rock of "16th & Valencia, Roxy Music" and the epic psychedelic rocker "Rats" – on which Banhart sounds eerily like Jim Morrison — deliver some of his most slammin' and professionally produced cuts yet.
"Chin Chin & Muck Muck" is classic Banhart – A.V. Club (The Onion) aptly called it "a vibrant centerpiece that curves wildly through jazz, more tropicalia, show tunes and folk, but then finds its way back."
Unfortunately, somber and spare tracks like the double-downer of "First Song for B" and "Last Song for B," and the sleep-inducing "Brindo" and "Walilamdzi," manage to kill the album's momentum. Still, "What Will We Be" remains one of this year's most compelling releases.
On "What Will We Be," said A.V. Club, "the prince of freak-folk has harnessed his many left-field tics and energies to craft his most elegantly driven work yet."
Billboard called it "intimate, experimental and ultimately accessible," while the Boston Phoenix called it "a uniquely blemished album that's hard not to love despite its downsides."
Banhart's band includes guitarists Noah Georgeson and Rodrigo Amarante (Little Joy, Los Hermanos), drummer Greg Rogove and bassist Luckey Remington. The Higher Ground show is the band's third stop on a month-long tour of the United States and Europe.