By Jared Buchholz
Right before placing “What Will We Be” into the stereo of my car, I noticed the rather un detailed art surrounding the paperback case. It looked sort of dreamy eyed boyish at first, but upon a closer look it started to appear remotely along the lines of a malicious nature . I’m talking about a Mr. Potato head that looks like he eats small children.
I quickly tried recalling anything that I had heard by, or anything that I’ve heard of Mr. Banhart in general. Immediately I witnessed this mental picture of Zooey Deschanel running around in a field with bright red bicycles raining all around her onto the extremely grassy green ground, in a hipster styled heaven. And while I’ll agree with the situation of Wes Anderson frothing at his mouth to use one if not all of these songs for a slow motion shot of some cigarette floating through the air, there was actually now a slightly melodious noise connected with this rather drowning yet soothing voice, that set my finger tapping and nervous nicks aside in the small matter of time that it took to reach the second song. Something much more thought out or planned was surrounding me. Much more so then any these new age “folk” artists, that are simply jumping onto the country superstar blue’s bandwagon, or the new age hokey pokey indie Nintendo music streaming on the airwaves.
I was surprised by the fact that after I had a couple listens to the album, the feeling of “What Will We Be” was in fact lacking something in the folk aspect of the described style of psych- folk that so many have coined to illustrate Banhart. In fact most of the folk actually has seemed to be misplaced for the time being. Instead of following in the steps of his earlier albums, Banhart has moved into the separate secondary entity of who he is with a more so than not of a psych-funk-jazz feel. I don’t mind this whatsoever and most of it is immensely tranquil/groovy to say the least.
There’s a few kickers that range from Banhart’s best Jim Morrison impression on “Rat”, to the dance impact beats of “16th and Valencia…….”, and the smooth easy cruise of “Baby.” Personally “Angelica” is a favorite of mine, for the same reason behind why most of the album is rather enjoyable. I appreciate the direction. A slightly thoughtful yet sarcastic mood. That suddenly starts expanding, into the tripping down the freeway mindset with a pretty sounding guitar and a car crash in the background. It’s hard picturing sappy flowers. I’m pleasantly and presently grateful for this.
While Banhart is not going to blow you away with anything remotely loud or intense, it’s something rather catchy, that changes significantly and constantly throughout the whole album. Banhart uses smaller songs ranging from three to three and half minutes, that change, for the most part, every one to one and a half minutes. For someone such as myself, diluted by television and commercialism, my attention span, is just tentative enough to able to appreciate Banhart’s attempt to actual entertain me, completely and thoroughly throughout the whole album, something not entirely too true about most modern day musicians.
A few, such as “Meet Me at Lookout Point” actually don’t meet this criteria relying more so on affects and sound, bringing that mild want of sleep to my eyes. Not necessarily the best thing in the world. But for the most part, as in “Chin Chin & Muck Muck”, right before my eyes do start to close, and I begin wishing it wasn’t the middle of the day, or that I need to put some real music on, something switches, and my head starts moving slightly in rhythm to all the notes now swarming my head.
Now this album isn’t going to bring about a life changing experience for anyone, but this is a good album, not a great album, a good album. It isn’t something in which one will feel the need to sit around and ponder the artists expressions or choice of notes, it’s nothing extravagant, it’s nothing overly unique, it’s in fact rather simple, this equation is what makes Banhart so subtly satisfactory. Add a mix of his Venezuelan heritage to a song writer, that in my mind is merely the millennial version of Bob Dylan, only with a much better voice, though there’s not nearly as much talent as the great in the form of words, and you get his beautiful melodies intertwined with the crazed song structure. And while many will miss the more so primitive side of Banhart’s older albums, I’m rather glad he went more so down the road in the style of his side project “Megapuss”, letting loose in comparison to his former pieces.
The best way that I could possibly describe “What Will We Be” is that it is an album you should give to someone that you’re trying to get lucky with. Leave all the work to Banhart’s sensuous voice, and you’ll wake the next morning, jubilated, but chances are not rejuvenated.
Keepers:    “Baby”    “Rats”     “Angelika”
3.75 out of 5
