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Cripple Crow
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: XL / Beggars Banquet
Release Date: 13 September 2005
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
Thom Monahan (Pernice Brothers) co-produced the singer-songwriter's fourth album, which finds him singing in Spanish on a few of the disc's 22 tracks.
Also By This Artist: Niño Rojo Rejoicing In The Hands Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon What Will We Be
Also On The Web: DB @ XL Recordings
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly
Supplement[s] his prior folky ways with a rash of surprising styles. [16 Sep 2005, p.85]
Stylus Magazine
It’s the collage of styles that distinguishes this album: Cuban and Indian flourishes, Eisenhower-era doo-wop, the smoky Stax groove, bucolic British trad-folk, the eccentricities of American folk, of both the Dust Bowl troubadours and the Vietnam flower-children.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
A '60s psychedelic, experimental hippie-folk throwback, an invocation of lost, childish innocence delicately constructed with a deft musical touch.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
At once hip-shaking, high-brow, heartfelt, hallowed, and a hell of a good time.
Read Full Review >Magnet
Enthralling music that embraces you like your mama never did. [#69, p.87]
Filter
Banhart's most straightforward recordings yet. [#17, p.94]
Pitchfork
Cripple Crow is undoubtedly impressive, vastly singular but entirely accessible, and an inspired listening experience where Banhart again proves himself one of the more talented and charismatic forces in modern folk.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
All of the interesting parts of his music are still here, he's just written an album that plays up his strengths in more measured ways. The result is easily his best release to date.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Much of the inensity burned into Banhart's previous albums is missing, and Crow is, upon closer look, largely a hodgepodge of references and genres... but Banhart manages to make the album sound cohesive. [#11, p.109]
Prefix Magazine
Cripple Crow is demanding because of its length - after twenty-two tracks on a single disc, nearly any artist would be difficult to tolerate. But the album is beautifully executed.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Whether it's due to the backing band, or the better studio resources, Banhart seems more self-assured than ever as he sings his songs on Cripple Crow.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
In the comparatively safe musical surrounds of 2005, he stands out as a compelling and utterly unique artist. [Oct 2005, p.119]
New Musical Express
'Cripple Crow' is way too much, in a way we don't get given often enough these days. Take it all in at one sitting and you'll end up bloated. But little and often? It's a cut-and-come-again treat.
Read Full Review >Mojo
A mature work from a fascinating man. [Oct 2005, p.110]
Splendid
While Rejoicing and Niño Rojo were clearer, simpler and more cohesive, Cripple Crow may actually be the better record. It feels exactly like the kind of album Devendra Banhart ought to have playing in his head -- a cacophony of cool sounds, a plethora of contradictory ideas, a patchwork quilt of psychedelically bright colors.
Read Full Review >Junkmedia
If gripes were to be made, one could argue with Crow's length, which at 74 minutes may be a little more whimsy than one can handle.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Ultimately, Cripple Crow is a roughly stitched tapestry; it is rich, varied, wild, irreverent, simple, and utterly joyous to listen to.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Less folky and more eclectic than his past work, Crow offers ample evidence of growth in Banhart’s range as both a performer and a songwriter.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Despite the piano, cellos and backing singers and the number of fleshed-out band songs, this sounds like nothing but a Devendra Banhart album.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
Banhart's pleas for peace and harmony have a guileless charm, and in "When They Come" they assume an epic urgency. But his whimsy is often slight and indulgent. [9 Oct 2005]
cokemachineglow
At the end of the day, this still isn’t a great album. It lacks continuity, much of a sense of rhythm, and the character that Banhart’s 2004 releases took on.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
Cripple Crow does a wonderful job expressing the range of Devendra Banhart’s musical interests, uneven though the actual payoff may be.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
More than anything else, 'Cripple Crow' is an album that it sounds like it was born amidst a fun, exuberant creative process.
Read Full Review >Blender
Though long, it's strong. [Oct 2005, p.134]
Paste Magazine
There are no outright misfires, but some songs... remain mood pieces that never build up enough sense of occasion to find structure within Banhart’s listless wistfulness.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
Cripple Crow finds Banhart doing what many didn't want him to do or thought he couldn't do: make a pretty lackluster album.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Taking the onus off his guitar playing dilutes Mr. Banhart's talent, and sometimes "Cripple Crow" makes of him what some people perhaps want him to be: a simulacrum of an obscure 1960's musician, a maker of albums that were so rare they never existed. [12 Sep 2005]
Uncut
If there's a signpost that Cripple Crow isn't quite the record it could've been, it's that the most engaging moments here recall Banhart records past. [Oct 2005, p.96]
Spin
Banhart brings the peace and love, but not the understanding. [Sep 2005, p.104]
Billboard
What has become increasingly clear is that Devendra Banhart needs an editor.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Joel C gave it a10:
Absolutely amazing, transporting as aldous huxley would say.
Brown B gave it a10:
I don't think this album would be good for everyone, but it's definately one that I love. I have been listening to it nearly nonstop ever since I purchased it.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
This album was my first exposure to Banhart, and I came away a bit disappointed. I subsequently heard Rejoicing in the Hands and Nino Rojo, and I loved both of them. So what's wrong with Cripple Crow? I'm not entirely sure yet. It seems less personal than his last two records, and it's certainly lost that intimate, relaxed vibe that they had. I wouldn't call Cripple Crow a bad record, but it doesn't begin to approach the genius of Banhart's other work.
T Boog gave it a9:
This is a great album. I'm definetly a fan of his older stuff, but I don't find this a disapointment in the least. It's a bit much to take in all at once, but give it a few listens and it'll begin to grow on you. It's the kind of album that reminds me how much I love being alive.
lujo b gave it a10:
the beauty in socks!!!
Sean T gave it a7:
slight disapontment. this album doesnt have the direct intimacy of his first 3 and it seems to lack a bit of focus but there are some standout tracks.
mads l gave it a4:
To me this is one of the major disappointments of 2005! Rejoicing was a fantastically freakish album but this is just hippy crap most of the way...where have all the folk mysticism and backwoods authenticity gone?
