DEVENDRA BANHART
"SEAHORSE"
from SMOKEY ROLLS DOWN THUNDER CANYON
WORDS: AW HENDERSON
It doesn't really matter to me how good or bad Devendra's records are, anymore, as long as the guy is still out there making music. We need him, because he's completely eccentric without trying to be. His career arc is pretty haphazard, which is just as it should be, I guess: demo tape -> twin solo albums showcasing his strange voice and his strange lyrics -> two albums showcasing his not-so-strange ambitions and genre hopping. So what if half of his audience is bored to death by the stripped down weirdness of Rejoicing in the Hands and the other half is bored to tears by the long-winded meanderings of Cripple Crow? I submit that he is a much more interesting and rewarding artist for having created two entirely distinct bodies of work.
So: "Seahorse." It's a great song. Really, download it and listen to it. One could argue that it brings together the disparate threads of all the different Devendra's we've known over the years. Indeed, the progression - from backyard folk to hippie jam to '70s rock epic - that characterizes this eight minute song serves as a simulacrum of Banhart's entire career. It shows his willingness to try new things that would presumably appeal to larger audiences, without sacrificing the classic Devendra weirdness. I don't like this song as much as any on Rejoicing, but I like it more than any on Cripple Crow. What does that mean? Nothing. Devendra, more than any other musician today, is an artist of the people whose body of work continues to demonstrate a democratizing tendency that is encouraging, if a little deflating. He wants everyone to like him, and will keep nailing genres until he covers every last one. If only he would realize that some of us like him just the way he is.