A 20-year reissue of Devendra Banhart’s “Cripple Crow” adds little to the original release.
20 years on from its initial release, Devendra Banhart’s “Cripple Crow” gets an expanded update, the original 22 songs augmented by an extra album’s worth of demos, live songs, and one unreleased number from the original sessions. Banhart was one of the premier exponents of what was generally called “freak folk” back then. Along with the likes of Vetiver, Espers and Joanna Newsom, he was digging into sixties exponents such as Michael Hurley, The Holy Modal Rounders and Ed Askew, all of whom were immersed in the folklore of primitive americana music as collected by Harry Smith on his groundbreaking “Anthology Of American Folk Music” collection. To this, Banhart added a “blissed out” psychedelic aroma, reeking of patchouli and communes while also adding a dash of early Marc Bolan warblings and a touch of exotica via his upbringing in Venezuela.
“Cripple Crow” was Banhart’s fourth album and the first one to gain wide media attention with plaudits from The Guardian and Rolling Stone, but his hippy dippy persona divided critics, with one describing him as “mad as a sack of voles” while a live review of his appearance at Glastonbury in 2010 concluded that Banhart was a 29-going-on-9-year-old. Nevertheless, “Cripple Crow” (and its follow-up “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon”) was the kick-start to an ascendancy which saw him signed to a major label and appearances at prestige gigs such as Glastonbury. Subsequent albums have had diminishing returns, however, and today, Banhart has retreated to something of a cult status.
Originally released on CD, “Cripple Crow” had 22 songs packed into it, many of them less than two minutes in length. Subsequent reissues (some on vinyl) added extra songs, but this latest version is the first to be curated by Banhart and the first release on his latest label, Heavy Flowers. It’s a triple vinyl album with notes on the songs from the man himself (unfortunately, not available to this reviewer). Listening to the original songs is to be transported back to what seems to be a simpler time. Fay songs which reference Nick Drake, Marc Bolan, The Beatles, Astrud Gilberto and The Incredible String Band, all sung in a wispy whisper, a La La Land of earnest whimsy, are, for the most part, quite delightful. There’s more than a touch of Nick Drake on the opening song, ‘Now That I Know’, while the following ‘Santa Maria da Feira’ finds Banhart marrying cool bossa nova vibes to Incredible String Band-like strangeness. Marc Bolan’s pixie-like ghost is reimagined on songs such as ‘Long Haired Child’, ‘I Feel Just Like A Child’ (a solid Tyrannosaurus Rex-like boogie) and ‘Lazy Sister’, while on several of the songs, Banhart dives fully into his Latin American heritage, singing in Spanish. His tribute to The Beatles (named, aptly, ‘The Beatles’) is an oddly engaging trip into odd jungle sounds, while the title song is perhaps the most fully realised number on the album, floating as it does in the ether of sixties pioneers Pearls Before Swine. With an album cover which evokes memories of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” artwork with a dark crow-like figure looming over the photomontage, “Cripple Creek” was the freak flag bearer for the then-nascent “freak folk” movement, elements of which still burble up from time to time. Of note, the current album artwork is a different montage from the original.
The additional disc here is titled “The Seventies” for some reason, presumably after the self-named number which features here. The song itself is a mildly entertaining salute to the music of that decade, but it’s definitely a notch below the quality of the songs from the original album. Think of Lou Reed fronting T Rex and you’re halfway there. The demos (six of them) are probably of most interest to avid Banhart collectors, as are the two live songs. Overall, they are hardly essential and add little to the original album experience. Fans might lap up the extra songs and will dig the packaging, but, essentially, fair-weather friends will probably be just as happy with their original copy.
