Today was New Records In The Mail Day, it seems: in my mailbox were the new Devendra Banhart, John Vanderslice and Stereolab. And the Banhart is very, very good. So here, samples:

Devendra Banhart - "There Was Sun". I liked Devendra's debut, Oh Me Oh My, a lot. Rejoicing in the Hands, however, is even better. Some of the outright weirdness has been stripped away (although a lot is left: see track titles such as "Tit Smoking in the Temple of Artesan Mimicry" and "The Beard is for Siobhan"), but that uncanny witchiness has been made up for with focus, restraint and, dare I say it, patches of beauty. I read Ryan Schreiber's 4.5-star review of Jack White's "Never Far Away" and got annoyed: not only is the writing stale ("gentle layers of acoustic guitar plucking backed by a warm cello line" - and don't get me started on his vacant "Float On" review), but he also committed that most heinous of crimes, disagreeing with me. This is relevant to "There Was Sun" because listen: this trifle, this silly but earnest ditty is already so much more meaningful than White's "fleshed-out song," his derivative balladeering. Banhart's fascinating because of the importance he gives to his bizarre little narratives, the implicit force that his fingerpicking carries. He's not trying to be cute, or even "honest," he's trying to be true, true to a strange and wild world in his eye.

Devendra Banhart - "Autumn's Child". Shades of You Are Free here: the repeated piano chords and a soft, kind voice. "Sing, child, sing. / Sing your song." Much more direct than anything Devendra's done before, more lovely, much easier for us to feel. It closes Rejoicing In The Hands, and it's the album's little wooden crown.