Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 24/09/07
Label: XL

"Never trust a hippy", snarled Johnny Rotten while he was in the Sex Pistols and it's a sentiment that's been echoed many times since the end of the '70s. But shouldn't we question this received wisdom? All across Europe the movement was tied up with great cultural change, revolutionary thought and not always necessarily terrible music. American hippies however, even at the time, seemed to be all about a very right wing form of libertarianism, espousing a creed of "take what you want, when you want it". And all they gave us in return was Country Joe And The Fish and The Grateful Dead. So, what good is another American hippy now?

Well, Devendra Banhart is nothing if not the real deal, if you're worried about the whole authenticity thing. Growing up the son of communal living sorts in Caracas, Venezuela before moving to Los Angeles, Banhart has always been steeped in the dark ways of patchouli and finger cymbals. But his peripatetic upbringing in Central America as well as South Central explains some of the magpie tendencies of "Smokey…", his fifth studio album. Like predecessor "Cripple Crow", it was recorded in the Californian countryside and also tries to cram in as many different styles appropriate to 1968 as possible. But this time he pulls it off, just about.

If Banhart has a failing it is that beyond his own slightly faint spectre-like presence he doesn't really have a style completely of his own so he can't help but wear his influences on his sleeve. These influences are mainly, however, admirable. On "Samba Vexillographica" he immerses himself in the world of revolutionary Brazilian psychedelia, which at once calls to mind Os Mutantes and Gil Gilberto. The centrepiece of the album is the eight-minute "Seahorse", which is an amiable enough Latinesque take on the country psych of The Byrds, before morphing into a Buddy Rich-like Blue Note jazz number and features rediscovered folk singer of the moment Vashti Bunyan.

On and on the wilful eclecticism goes. There is even a slightly questionable (if actually downright brilliant) Hasidic doo wop song called "My Shabop Shalom Song" and the perfunctory T-Rex pastiche, "Lover", which could have been transported whole from "Top Of The Pops" in 1973, complete with gold tinsel, dungarees and platform boots. Fittingly, "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" is a feel good record for what's left of this 'summer' and even though it's packed with second hand magic and joy, such charms probably won't wear past the depths of winter, unless you truly are a hippy at heart.

    by John Doran