Cripple Crow - Devendra Banhart Album Review

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Album Review

Monday July 19 brings the LP vinyl version of last year's CD release of Devendra Banhart's outstanding album Cripple Crow. This time around it has new artwork. Hundreds of fans entered an online competition on www.devendrabanhart.com after which Devendra personally chose pictures that would appear on the cover. They were added to the existing artwork, creating a wonderful montage. (See image)

Clearly a man with a fondness for the 60s hippy era, 1967-1969, Cripple Crow is a sheer delight from start to finish. Vocally he's a dead ringer of Tyrannosaurus Rex's warbling Marc Bolan. Appropriately recorded in Woodstock, the weird but wonderful Banhart who's also a part-time member of folk combo Vetiver, has created an alternative folk masterpiece that includes self-penned Spanish folk ballads - including a cover of Luna De Margarita by Venezuelan tunesmith Simon Diaz, a hark back to his South American teenage years. Then there's the gentle Queen Bee - you can just see him watching a hovering bee and chronicling its journey, only to be flummoxed by human references.

Deeply hippyfied I Feel Just Like A Child with playful lyrics like from the " womb to the tomb" makes a joyous blast, as is the trippy ballad Long Haired Child. Title track Cripple Crow sees him at his best, a wistful floater with lashings of flute, bongos, acoustic guitar and 'friends' doing backups.

There are some 'bonkers' moments like the lyrically unfathomable The Beatles....but there again Banhart has turned being unfathomable into an art form that makes him a unique and beguiling individual ,who can only be described as a genuine troubadour, and possibly a genius in his chosen genre. If I had to choose a special moment, it's the 3 minutes 43 seconds of the violin and acoustic guitar simplicity of Inaniel, followed closely by the bluesy Chinese Children ( hitting a Bolan vocal peak )and daisy waving chorus of Mama Wolf, complete with FX.

Dreamy, beautiful, weird, gentle, and sweet: totally magical.

Elly Roberts