What Will We Be
The preeminent songwriter and personality of New Weird America moves to Reprise without losing any of his eclecticism or quirk.
Devendra Banhart has found focus. Sure, over the course of six full-lengths, whether he was simply alone with his fingerpicking and tremolo, or gathering friends for psychedelic spirit journeys, Banhart did lock into hypnotist grooves. But on this, his major-label bow, the (now beardless!) prince of freak-folk has…
“Please destroy me!” pleads freakfolk flagbearer Devendra Banhart on “First Song for B,” one of the many...
Setting aside the grand orchestrations of Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, Devendra Banhart's What Will We Be is everything its predecessor was not: straight-forward, cleanly produced, consistently laid-back (to nearly Jack Johnson proportions), and free of ambition.
What Will We Be is nominally effective but often mired in flat and indecisive songwriting.
Though it wasn’t that well-received by the critics, I quite enjoyed Devendra Banhart’s last album.