Devendra Banhart Finishes Sixth Album, Plans Autumn Release

Devendra Banhart has finished work on his untitled sixth album and will release the new LP in the Fall 2009, the freak-folk singer announced in a statement. The album is Banhart's first since 2007's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, which hit Rolling Stone's Best Albums of the Year list. (It's also the first album since Banhart's relationship with actress Natalie Portman — maybe some breakup songs?) The still-untitled disc was co-produced by Banhart and Paul Butler, a member of the U.K.'s grossly-underrated A Band of Bees. Banhart's Smokey band guitarist Noah Georgeson, drummer Greg Rogove (also Banhart's Megapuss cohort), bassist Luckey Remington and guitarist Rodrigo Amarante once again back up the singer. As his record contract with XL Recordings has expired, Banhart's sixth LP is currently label-less.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

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