Devendra Banhart
Nino Rojo

"Nino Rojo" follows Devendra's good work with "Rejoicing in the Hands," and I must say it retains the simplicity, freshness, and lightheartedness seen in the first one. Devendra is a "fricchettone" of the new millennium, and he wants people to know it; he cares... he draws his chords from folk and blues traditions as well as from the "loners," the so-called "solitaires," who, disillusioned after Woodstock, decided to focus on themes like love, life's passions, and disillusionment after years of political engagement.

The album, from start to finish, seems almost enveloped in a special, magical, and mystical aura (Devendra presents himself as a ferryman on a journey through dreams and hopes), just as his videos always seem somewhat blurred, undefined, and elusive.
Otherwise, he might come across as a bit unpleasant, it's true—long beard, long hair, dressed like a flower child, a modern hippie with a voice that you either like or you don't.
Let's just say "se la sente calla" (for further clarification consult the vocabulary of the "lingua romana"), but if you close your eyes and listen to his guitar vibrate along with his very distinctive voice, I say you forget everything. For Devendra, time has stopped, frozen in a warm late '60s summer of Haight Ashbury, San Francisco: the "acid tests," the dense marijuana smoke, the communes, the Volkswagen vans, the sex and the sense of brotherhood, the centrality of love, when California was the driving force and true pulsing heart, and not just concerning music.

Overall, "Nino Rojo" is a minimalist album, but enjoyable and definitely worth listening to. Within it, there are alternating song-nurseries like "Little Yellow Spider," the charming "We All Know" and "At The Hop," "An Island," but also the Barrett-like psychedelic "HorseHeadedFleshWizard" and "Sister."
Perhaps slightly inferior to the previous one, to be honest, but if you appreciated it, I think you won't be disappointed this time either... at least I wasn't.