Devendra Banhart
Cripple Crow [20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition]
HEAVY FLOWERS
Twenty years ago, Devendra Banhart—indie freak-folk godhead, impressionist lyrical swami—released his Revolver-level epic with the production aid of Vetiver’s Andy Cabic and multi-instrumentalist Thom Monahan in Cripple Crow. Of course, its cluster-fucked cover art was meant to ape another Beatles classic, Sgt. Pepper’s, but the sonic asymmetry and emotional, quixotic lyricism of Cripple Crow was better suited to the Fab Four’s initial foray into psychedelia with its melting-clock guitars and its Anglo-folksy buoyancy.
Once inside this wonderwall of sound, the American-Venezuelan songwriter became a merry-to-maudlin missionary of Congo-to-Cuban cool as he welcomed all-worldly, ethno-prairie vibes and a Haight-Ashbury, hashish-like wiggle to the orgiastic gathering. Of course, what set all of it into place—cohesively and with a tactile vibrancy—was Banhart’s warbly, sensuous vocals; a sound uniquely sexy, serene, and even oddly sinister at times when heard inside the likes of “Sawkill River.”
The only way, then, to celebrate the already-existing expansiveness of Cripple Crow is to expand its literal dimensions. For its 20th anniversary, that means a third album of equal value and wonk to its origin story, featuring session outtakes such as “The Seventies,” an Amazonian glam-rocker that brings Banhart’s Bolan-esque voice to another dimension; a rare B-side in the sultry “Shame”; and a handful of sketchy Crow demos and live cuts that show a master at study and at play. Still, the best part of the Cripple Crow experience is just that—the happening of hearing it all at once, from the mudpie-encrusted pop of “Long Haired Child” and “Lazy Butterfly,” to the hip swaying pansexuality of “I Love That Man,” to the simple pleasures of “I Feel Just Like a Child” and “There's Always Something Happening?”
If it’s all new to you, Cripple Crow will be a gentle, wobbly psychedelic rush, like the first time you took mushrooms with a friend. If you’ve heard and loved it all before, Cripple Crow 20 will make for one joyous reunion.
