"Pleasant continuity" seems like an odd bit of praise to come up with for nu-folk shaman Devendra Banhart [ tickets ]'s major-label debut, but he has delivered a surprise-free pop-rock concoction that's long on pep and conviviality.

Rather than create an aural centerpiece to give the album a focal point, Banhart's latest is a flowing effort that glides from idea to idea, the singer/songwriter deftly shaping songs with dramatic left turns that consistently hold the listener's ear.

The standout songs are structured as multi-genre collages: "Rats" opens with a brooding, Doors-ian quality before shifting into a molasses flow of a Led Zeppelin riff; "Chin Chin & Muck Muck" puts us in a San Francisco barroom with Chet Baker and Jack Kerouac swapping stories until a Chinese New Year celebration passes by outside; "16th & Valencia Roxy Music" has elements of the British band's early '70s work in the bass and a heaping helping of the Raspberries in the melody.

Recorded in a home studio in Northern California, where the band resided while making the album, "What Will Be" suggests more about time than space. This is an afternoon album, a collection of songs that suggest post-lunch gatherings and living-room jams at sunset. "Angelika," which fades from a sunny, whimsical tune into a Spanish-language barroom sing-along, is the one song on the album that grabs ahold of the listener and demands attention. The quiver is pronounced in Banhart's voice, vulnerability abounding in his vocal presentation and the lyrics.

"Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain," Banhart's bracing 2007 release, layered Bahia and Topanga Canyon, implying that the fairy dust of '70s farming hippies and Tropicalia stylists remains a potent intoxicant. Nothing on the new album echoes the music from NoCal's defining moments, no Summer of Love, no early '80s punk. As a positive, that points to the flexibility in the relationship between Banhart, his producer Noah Georgeson and their band of musicians: Banhart will not be shackled by history, whether it's the fuzzy edges of folk music he has championed or his own work. Being able to do that and record for a major label is an achievement unto itself.