The thing that struck me initially was the amount of tracks featured on this album. In comparison with the currently ‘in vogue’ tradition of keeping albums short (but not always sweet), ‘Cripple Crow’ treats us to a staggering 22 tracks – a double album by today’s standards. Opener ‘Now That I Know’ is a slow burning, stripped down, acoustic stream of consciousness, with no real chorus progression or percussion featuring throughout. This probably sounds pretty monotonous, but in fact it isn’t. Devendra has a clever way with lyrics, and obviously uses his imagination to colour many of his songs, which span a wide range of differing subject matter, from the way people to think to how his children wear their hair.

Many songs on this album are in the same vein as the opener, with little, or minimal percussion, but they never fail to remain interesting as Banhart uses his voice almost as a second instrument, conjuring up different feelings within the listener as the album progresses. A selection of songs are sung in his native Spanish, which also provides a nice variation, and another ‘sound’ to Banhart’s repertoire. When extra percussion is added is when the songs really find their feet however, and songs such as ‘Long Haired Child’ and ‘Quedate Lun’a have a strong pace about them that make you want to listen again. It could be argued that the reason for 22 tracks is that there is a lot of filler, and I must admit that it took me a few listens to be seduced by the charisma of this album, but once I had, I enjoy every track as much as the next. What appeals to me is that the album sort of runs like a bit of a jam session. There are multiple experiments with different instruments, such as flutes, sitars and violins, which all provide variation throughout the album, and make you feel that Devendra is really trying to push his own boundaries musically, rather than just sick to what he knows works. I doubt that I could easily categorise this album, as it acts as somewhat of a chameleon, mutating through a plethora of different styles.

The single ‘...Like A Child’ is probably one of the highlights of the album, but this could just be down to its instantaneous melody. The main subject matter here being how Devendra feels ‘just like a child’, it takes a tongue in cheek look at how he is misunderstood because people treat him like an adult although he is just a child. The song structure revolves around that classic sixties chord structure of GGCGDCG (think surfing favourite “Wipeout”), but it works well, and holds the pulsing bassline to good effect. Again, the song is quite bare, but it doesn’t seem to be missing anything, it just feels ‘right’.

Kinkajou’s ‘Nocturne’ is a short and sweet tribute to the 70’s, with the only real letdown being ‘Underpants’ by The Mink Troubador Kamikaze Squadron, an immature song about, well, take a guess, which sticks out from what is otherwise an album that has a hell of a lot more hits than misses. There’s even a bit of lo-fi goodness by The Rebel, the Monkees' inspired ‘Natural Born Blond’…to be honest, if you ever wanted to find out what the soundtrack would be to a night going to every London gig in one evening, this would be a good start.

Tracks such as new single ‘I’m on a High’ incorporate the kind of special FX you’d expect to hear from faulty machinery, and while rather endearing at first (well as endearing as wet squelches can be) they begin to grate after 3 tracks. My advice? Become guests on the next ‘Desert Sessions’ LP, I swear it wouldn’t be that different from what we have here.