Amazon.co.uk Review
A grand, full-band excursion that occasionally strays many miles from the sparse freak-folk with which San Franciscan minstrel Devendra Banhart made his name.
Cripple Crow dips its toes in Brazilian Tropicalia, 50s-tinged Spector-esque guitar pop, and hippy freak-out, and to its maker’s huge credit, comes out smelling of roses.
It could have all gone so wrong, but three Spanish-language tracks--including a cover of "Luna De Margarita" by one of Banhart’s heroes, Simon Diaz--feel natural and unforced, and the full-band feel adds a pleasing weight to the likes of "Long-Haired Child", all retro R&B strut and pedal-distorted guitar soloing. Banhart’s fascination with animal imagery carries over here to tracks like "Lazy Butterfly" and "Queen Bee", but it’s rather been superceded by a fascination for youth and childhood: "I Feel Just Like A Child" is a hymn to eternal youth, Banhart proclaiming that "From suckin’ on my mother’s breast, to when they lay my bones to rest, I’m a child", while the bizarre "Little Boys" finds him identifying "so many little boys I wanna marry" over a classic Stax-style ‘50s rock backdrop. An unusual, sometimes uncomfortable record, then – but a mischievous, adventurous, and essential one, too. --Louis Pattison
From the Label
Devendra Banhart exploded on the international music scene 3 years ago quickly winning a coterie of devoted fans as well as an unusually hefty amount of critical kudos. The critics’ acclaim and the size of his audience both at home and abroad increased dramatically with the release of 2004’s Rejoicing In The Hands and Nino Rojo albums. Cripple Crow finds Devendra continuing his extraordinary growth as a writer, vocalist and musician. Songs like "Now That I Know" and "I Do Dig a Certain Girl" among others provide more of the hushed, mysterious acoustic alchemy that delighted listeners on preceding set though the new tunes show still greater artistic depth and delicacy.
Other performances are more elaborate featuring a range of electric instruments, rock rhythm section, sitar, flute, violin, cello, exotic percussion, et cetera. Banhart and company evoke a tribe of sun-dappled psychedelic gypsies on "When They Come", while "Long Haired Child" has a more acid-damaged garage-band cut and thrust. "Pensando Enti", "Quedate Luna" and "Luna De Margarita" are gorgeous ballads sung in lilting Spanish. All in all, Cripple Crow witnesses Banhart furthering his mastery of the acoustic/experimental idiom he helped pioneer as well providing himself with fresh challenges an artist.
Devendra has also become known as an outspoken champion of other musicians, mainly the uncommon and underexposed among his contemporaries as well as musical forebearers. He regularly cites singers like Vashti Bunyan (whom he recorded a duet with as the title track of Rejoicing In The Hands), Linda Perhacs and Clive Palmer as important inspirations and brought them among others to the attention of wider audiences than they’d experienced in decades.
Devendra Banhart has emerged as one of the most fascinating, unpredictable and inspiring artists of his generation and with Cripple Crow he continues to surprise and delight an ever-increasing audience of fans and critics alike.
~ Devendra Banhart
~ Devendra Banhart
~ Devendra Banhart
~ Fleet Foxes
~ Bon Iver
See all 15 tracks on this disc
![Cripple Crow [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BnEXh0HXL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
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