One of my favourite albums of this year is Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Lookaftering’ (see elsewhere on this site for a review) and that perfectly formed morsel clocks in at around 35 minutes – quite short by today’s standards really. This got me thinking about other very good fleeting albums – off the top of my head – Randy Newman’s SAIL AWAY and 12 SONGS, Nick Drake’s PINK MOON, Bobby Wob’s NASHVILLE SKYLINE and Dolly’s JOLENE (and that’s no joke folks – it’s the business). Notice anything? Yes, they are quite old.
Now I know its not very original but let me give it to you one more time people – in my opinion ALBUMS TODAY ARE TOO GODDAMN LONG! By and large, anyway. Back in the day 2 sides of around 20 minutes each was the norm and that still sounds grand to me. My attitude is if you put out anything original over 50 minutes long you better have a good reason. The counter argument is that longer length gives the customer more value for money, but I’m afraid I can’t agree with that – with music, quality always wins over quantity.
Right, which double albums, to coin a quaint expression (and ignoring the obvious ones - Stones, Dylan, Beatles), do I think stand up as bitchin’, righteous discs? Let me see, Todd Rundgren’s SOMETHING/ANYTHING, Prince’s SIGN O’ THE TIMES, Magnetic Field’s 69 LOVE SONGS… so they do exist. But one of the things I think which make these albums interesting is a certain sprawling-ness where the artists involved jumps around stylistically a lot so you don’t know what’s coming next and this keeps your ear engaged over the long spell.
Which brings us in a very convoluted way to Devendra Banhart’s latest CD, the 74 minute long CRIPPLE CROW (XL records) and sad to say, it doesn’t join the exalted company above as an outstanding long-player. The cover – a cross between Sgt. Pepper and the Maharishi/Beatles/Mia Farrow/Donovan group photos, stakes out in plain terms the area and era in which DB is working in and taking inspiration from. Get out your joss sticks people, in other words.
Oddly enough for someone who seems to delight in surprising and confounding an audience’s expectations, one of the problems with the album I think, is its homogeneousness. On CRIPPLE CROW DB basically sings three types of song – incense driven Incredible String Band/Donovan/T-Rex-ish acid-folk with sitar and tablas in tow, laidback Latin numbers sung in Spanish and more up-tempo bluesy group efforts. And to be honest about these in general, the acid-folk ones are just not wigged-out enough (and wouldn’t blow my grandmother’s mind for instance never mind me), the Spanish ones sound a bit flat and uninspired and the bluesy ones there are not enough of.
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Its not all bad though, some of the songs are very good indeed QUEEN BEE - a slow atmospheric blues, QUEDATELUNA, a moody, pulsating hipswayer, CHINESE CHILDREN, which is silly but infectious, KOREAN DOGWOOD, a Stones-y country slide and LUNA DE MARGARITA. On the debit side though there is much filler here too - THE BEATLES (name of song), DRAGONFLY, HEY MAMA WOLF all fail to er, enlighten. The musicianship throughout is good but I’m not sure the overall mix does the music any favours – it all sounds a bit lumpen and undynamic.
In DB’s defense CRIPPLE CROW is never downright bad – there is an appealing late night ambience to the album and it occupies a similar (but very different kind) of territory as the aforementioned Rundgren’s magnum opus SOMETHING/ANYTHING with its spoken between-track interludes and convivial studio feel. But it lacks that little magical spark to elevate it above the merely good and there is no one really outstanding track on it I feel. Its fine music for getting stoned to I guess but that does not a great album make folks. I for one would have liked to hear more of the harder, more beat driven stuff as on CHINESE CHILDREN, LONG HAIRED CHILD (desperate lyrics however), LITTLE BOYS and I FEEL JUST LIKE A CHILD which rock out well.
So, there is a lot of hype surrounding DB at the moment but his latest release did not leave this reviewer feeling as if he had reached a state of nirvana exactly. (Adopting ‘Neil’ voice) "I really don’t want to like, come over all negative mannn.., I mean whoa".
Perhaps i am an old and boring git i dunno. Maybe all this sounds fab when you haven’t heard its like before and at the end of the day anything that opens people’s ears is to be welcomed I suppose. However I am not sure that Banhart adds anything particularly new to the acid-folk sub-genre. To those interested in such things check out The Holy Modal Rounders’ EAT THE MORAY EELS and even better, their INDIAN WAR WHOOP. Now those are fucking weird records boys and girls, let me tell ya.
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