After the riot that was I Feel Just Like A Child, that hairy pixie Devendra Banhart is back with more hippy thoughts of the world and the cosmos. For fans already in possession of the album Cripple Crow, there's the countrified twang of Chicken to keep the faith.
But Heard Somebody Say couldn't be more timely. At the heart of the lyrics is a poignant political message: "It's simple, we don't want to kill." It's the recorded equivalent of a "Not In My Name" banner and a protest march, and married to woozy piano and backing vocals it sounds like nothing more than an entreaty for peace in our time.
In a week in which it was revealed that the United States has been blitzing parts of Iraq with white phosphorus, the warmongers in Washington, DC and their automatons in the field would do well to heed this latter-day flower power boy's call and start respecting human life.
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