- Label
- XL
- Release date
- 24th September 2007
- Genre
- Rock/folk
Hairy kooky folky takes us on a magical, genre-hopping journey
Since his 2002 album Oh Me Oh My…, Venezuelan/American Devendra Banhart has been the kooky, beardy troubadour it’s okay to like. This was surprising, considering his output inhabited an impenetrable, supernatural world of unhinged lyrics swathed in outmoded Seventies folksy psychedelia. However, Smokey… is Banhart’s "break-up album" - and like many similar pieces of work, from Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks to Beck’s Sea Change, it sees him far more focussed and open – still in his own eccentric way, of course.
Such new personal beginnings also mean Banhart explores new and rewarding musical directions on this fifth album - see the gospel-drenched soul of Saved, the fuggy dub of The Other Woman, the ecstatic funk groove of Lover, the Tropicalia pop of Samba Vexillographica and Carmensita. Beautiful stripped down ballads such as Freely and My Dearest Friend are also more lyrically opaque: “I’m gonna die of loneliness” and “It ain’t about a heart to find, it’s about the one inside” are the kind of direct lines Banhart has rarely penned before. Coming in at over an hour long, there’s luckily enough time to take in all the delights on such a meandering, but dazzling journey.
More to try: Devendra Banhart: Rejoicing In The Hands Elliott Smith: XO Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender Vetiver: To Find Me Gone
