Track Listing

1. Tick Eats The Olive
2. Roots (If The Sky Were A Stone)
3. Charles C. Leary
4. Nice People
5. Animals In My Play
6. Cosmos And Demos
7. Michigan State
8. Lend Me Your Teeth
9. Miss Cain
10. Soon Is Good
11. Tell Me Something
12. Red Lagoon
13. Gentle Soul
14. Happy Happy Oh
15. Pumpkin Seeds
16. Thumbs Touch Too Much
17. Legless Love
18. Marigold
19. Make It Easier
20. Donal And Colter
21. Little Monkey
22. Spirit Is Near

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52903 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The full title of this album is Oh Me Oh My the Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit. This sums up singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart reasonably well, demonstrating as it does an engagingly whimsical imagination, an evocative turn of phrase and a vast capacity to irritate. There are moments on Oh Me Oh My… which will have the listener drawing appreciative comparisons with Syd Barret and Elliot Smith, and there are hours during which you'll want to swat Banhart with his own guitar.

What Banhart really needs is a good editor. When he's good, as on the sombre and pretty "Animals" and "Cosmos and Demos", he radiates a downbeat charm that suits his lo-fi approach to recording perfectly. When he's bad, as on the laboured, wilfully annoying avant-garde nonsense--unhappily reminiscent of Vic Chestnutt at his least agreeable--that constitutes too much of the rest of the album, he's unlistenable. On Oh Me Oh My…, the balance is just about on the credit side of the ledger. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

folk-ing great
this album is special
ive listened to it just the once and i love it straight away
the guitar playing is simple and very beautiful and devendras voice is something else entirely, a little strange and certainly unique to anything ive heard before. i could certainly envision devendra being born in the wrong time as i think this is truly suited to late 60s/early 70's, im glad its around now though and i would love to witness this man playing a live show
buy the album, i couldnt recommend it more
the ltd vinyl version is nice to own for a little extra cash
im so looking forward to getting the rest of this mans work and also try to get ahold of the compilation he has put together on the bastet label
this is something very special and lovley

finally! some talent!
These are Godforsaken times. With everybody being completely pre-occupied with PopIdol and Eminem being considered a poet (go figure that one out) it's getting difficult to take anything seriously. But no fear! There are still people out there who give a damn! There are still people out for whom there is more on the horizon! Devendra Banhart is such a person.

DB took his dictaphone and his old guitar and started to record some demos. Michael Gira (Swans) heard these and decided they were too good not to be heard by the rest of the world. Give the man a medal! This is a truly inspiring and original disc!

You have to be able to handle DB's strange choirboy-gone-mad kind of voice. It's an androgynous voice that can turn you nuts or makes you fall in love with it. Sometimes it sounds sad, sometimes sweet, sometimes downright scary. But it remains very powerful throughout the album. It is DB's strongest weapon.

I hope we are gonna hear a lot more from DB in the future.

Surreal, strange, astounding and intimate....
Ever felt tired of commercial, slickly-produced rock. Ever wanted something more rough around the edges. Look no further for there is a new challenger to the lo-fi throne.

Before even listening to the album it's not too difficult to gather that the album may be a little strange. Just a look at the album title and the full titles of many of the tracks give an indication of Banhart's mindset. 'The Thumbs Touch Too Much' and 'Lend Me Your Teeth' are not the kind of song titles you would expect on a Nickelback album. Indeed this feeling is only enhanced by actually listening to the album, which before going any further must be declared as the most unexpected oddity of 2002. And what a joy it is.

Over the course of 22 tracks Banhart weaves a considerable variety of emotions and themes together to create an album with genuine intimacy. Swinging from sweet story-teller (Soon is Good, Michigan State) to creepy shouter of ambiguous phrases (Nice People, Lend Me Your Teeth), Banhart makes every minute of the album worthwhile. Many of the lyrical images he conjures are too surreal to have far-reaching significance to the audience yet somehow one can relate to making 'soup out of pumpkin seeds' and having a friend who possesses your 'favourite teeth' which 'bend backward when she breathes'.

Exactly how Banhart makes these nonsensical messages have an emotive presence is not really clear but certainly his voice goes a long way. At points it is nothing more than a screech, but when he knuckles down it really shines and he can float into falsetto with the best of them. Also, the fact that he uses everything at his disposal to add to the effect (hand-claps, whistles) really gives the listener an impression of the intensity with which he works.

Though this is nothing more than Banhart's home and travel recordings there is a great deal here. Time will tell whether he can cut it as an in-studio talent, the ultimate fear is that the rare beauty and intimacy will be lost with slick production.

Either way, I will be awaiting his next with great anticipation. So should you be.