Rejoicing in the Hands

Devendra Banhart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Young God Records
• ASIN: B00020W0ME
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,243 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #87 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Lo-Fi

Editorial Reviews

When Michael Gira's Young God label issued Devendra Banhart's glorious home-recorded debut, Oh Me Oh My, on an unsuspecting world, its gorgeous yet sparse primitivism, complete outsider lyric sensibilities, and infectious melodies grabbed hold of listeners all over the world. It offered them a bona fide fissure between popular and underground American culture. Banhart's aesthetic is no pose; his iconoclastic songwriting could not be farther away from officially sanctioned "alternative" music. However, given the unanticipated coverage and success of the album (by modest indie standards, folks, not those dictated by the biz), a quandary was presented in how to follow it up. Should his new songs -- and there were many -- be recorded in exactly the same way to preserve the notion of "authenticity?" Or should he not be penalized by having to adhere to the same economic realities, and be nurtured as the developing artist he is? Wisely, Gira and Banhart saw through the smokescreen what a word like "authentic" implies. Banhart's songs are the authentic outsider article even if he were to record them in Barry White's studio, so why punish for the sake of a media construct? Gira and Banhart chose a simple but very effective recording studio in engineer Lynn Bridges' house on the Georgia/Alabama border as their location, getting down 57 songs(!) and choosing 32 for two different albums from the treasure trove. Rejoicing in the Hands is the first of these albums -- another will be issued in the fall of 2004. Simply stated, it is a stunner, form start to finish. Banhart's Muse may be furiously active, but she is tender all the same. The sonic ambience on this disc is breathtaking. Gira and Banhart brought the master tapes back to Brooklyn for some minimal and tasteful overdubbing -- a guitar track here, a cello or trumpet there, a piano ghosting through the mix in another place, some spare drumming, hand percussion or vibes somewhere else. Over it all, though, is Banhart's reedy tenor and edgy, angular guitar playing with its hypnotic insistence carrying the tunes from deep in the interior of his image and sound world to the fore, where listeners can encounter and engage with them. Elements of blues, ragtime, Appalachian rural styles, country music, European and Celtic folk songs: all weave in and out of one another in a seamless yet crackling whole, each of them serving their role in articulating Banhart's sublimely prismatic, loopy vision. Singling out tracks or quoting from his words would amount to nothing more than sacrilege. This music is simply rendered, to be sure, but unspeakably profound and mercurial; it's funny, warm, heartbreaking, and evocative of another place and time. There are glimpses here of Greil Marcus' "old weird America," the all-but-visible inner terrain that informed certain spiritual, social, and aesthetic elements in our culture. Banhart's music is utterly unselfconscious and poetic. Rejoicing in the Hands is a whole -- each song an inseparable part of an offering for listeners to be, quite literally, enchanted and even awed by. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It'll show your ears a real good time., March 3, 2005

By 

Chester - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rejoicing in the Hands (Audio CD)

I didn't think I'd be into this, but it turns out I was wrong. At first glance he seems kinda gimmicky in that precious, indie kinda way, but once I actually listened to Devendra Banhart...well his music is really amazing. His lyrics are sometimes playful, sometimes sad and always surreal, and his voice is one of a kind. The songs are simple, short and mostly recorded solo with acoustic guitar, though electric guitar, percussion and the occasional understated horn or string is thrown into the mix perfectly. Devendra Banhart released another album, Nino Rojo, within a few months of this one. Both albums are very similar in sound and style (they come from the same recording session) and both have a uniform good-to-great song quality. I reccomend you buy them both and if you're not won over immediately just relax, keep listening and don't analyze things so much.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I rejoice in this music..., November 25, 2004

By 

Savannah Skye (New York City, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rejoicing in the Hands (Audio CD)

My friend got this to me as a gift... As I've been wanting it since hearing it in full at a listening station at Virgin... What caught my ears at first (and heart) is his similarities to Marc Bolan (his solo acoustic music)... His nuances and inflections in his singing style and guitar playing more than remind me of Marc... The way he structures his songs as well... This is a good thing, because I believe Marc as well as Devendra to be a musical genius... So if you're a fan of Marc Bolan's, you'll enjoy his music as well... Also, I believe that fans of old style acoustic blues will enjoy it as well, seeing as he incorporates old style acoustic blues into his playing, with modernistic touches... As well as anti-folk fans will enjoy...

So all in all, if you're a fan of anti-folk, old style acoustic blues or Marc Bolan solo acoustic music, I highly recommend you to pick up this cd and rejoice in his music - Savannah Skye aka DJ Dakini-NYC...

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a meadow in summer., March 13, 2005

By 

Maeda Telecaster "baby ate the album" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rejoicing in the Hands (Audio CD)

if you are at all familiar with karen dalton (you should be if not, b/c she's amazing), you will draw comparisons to devendra with her. i find that this album really reminds me of a mixture of karen, vashti bunyan, and a dash of jack white. it's a summer album, hell, it's an all-year-round album, but when i listen to this, i feel like chewing on the end of a long, sun-dried weed while walking barefoot at sundown in late august in my original northern wisconsin digs. that is this album. and all affectedness aside, devendra's voice is just plain gritty and lovely and wonderful, along with his original song-writing and musicianship.