So I declared this amnesty or moratorium or whatever on lonesome boy singer-songwriters, and guess how long it lasted? It lasted precisely ONE DAY, because I got sent Devendra Banhart’s new CD, which some people are saying is overkill what with him just having released an album, but which I think is rather wonderful. In spite of myself. Damn you, Devendra, and your pretty way of keeping the ‘hmm!’ noise at the start of your first song, which most people would erase. It’s such a cliche, because we know you’re really singing, and you don’t have to keep the throat-clearing in to prove anything, but it’s how these old-new records sound now, isn’t it? It’s all precious, every rustle and skip and clunk. If it wasn’t nearly dinner time I’d get onto some thing about glitch and the new folk and the meeting of sound and song and how our ears are open to texture these days like never before, which makes being a songwriter so much more fun now, I guess, and…I will save the essay until after. Save it for somewhere that isn’t a blog, maybe - now there’s a thought.

In other news, that new Hot Chip thing is pretty fine. It’s so clever it almost makes you want to slap it. I think that’s a compliment.