Devendra Banhart, 'What Will We Be'

Release date: October 27, 2009
Record label: Warner Bros.
Official Web site: http://devendrabanhart.com/

The buzz: Freak-folk figurehead Devendra Banhart’s first album for a major label, “What Will We Be” comes after years of ponderous and offbeat solo LPs and, most recently, 2007’s band-backed “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon,” as well as last year’s silly Megapuss side project. Here, Banhart’s joined again by the group from “Smokey,” and shares production credit with A Band of Bees frontman Paul Butler.

The verdict: This is neither the “sell out” CD some had feared, nor the break out hit-in-waiting some had hoped for. It’s a solid Banhart album that diverges from his past in a few important ways (better production, a more studied sense of genre-hopping), while keeping the charming core (a sense of adventure, experimentalism mixed with melody). Megapuss actually figure in as a bigger influence than one might anticipate, especially on bro-jams like “Goin’ Back to the Place” (folk rock), “16th & Valencia/Roxy Music” (indie rock), “Rats” (Zeppelin), and “Foolin” (reggae). Though those are the tracks that will get the most notice for standing out, the cuts with Banhart’s more standard “naturalismo” and folk flavorings deserve their due for maturing without stagnating (particularly “The First Song for B” and its “Last” companion, along with the sonically bifurcated “Angelika”).

Did you know? Banhart coined the genre term “naturalismo” as an alternative to his less-preferred “freak-folk.” He says it better captures his approach, while also paying homage to tropicalismo and his major influence, Caetano Veloso, aka “the Bob Dylan of Brazil.”

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