Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon

Sixth album from Texan/Venezuelan folk wonderboy

It’s a well-known rock journalism fallback to compare a new record with those of the past, but with Banhart’s latest sprawling 70-minute offering, there are so many specific artist reference points that to list them all would be a waste of space. Needless to say, he has created one of the most varied listens you’re likely to hear for a long while, with glam (Lover), Canterbury Scene prog (Seahorse) Tropicalia (Carmencita), dub (The Other Woman) and even doo wop (Shabop Shalom) resurrected under an only occasionally lifted hippy veil. On the latter, Devendra even quotes a blooming line from The Monotones’ The Book Of Love, so audacious is his magpie way. Somewhat frustratingly, though, all this wondrous groundwork is a little undone by downright foggy production. What starts clean and crisp (the exquisite Cristobal) soon plunges down into a record that sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a well. In bubble wrap. A shame then, that such wondrous experimentation is besmirched, but who knows, maybe it’ll blossom into the five-star release it genuinely is underneath when it gets a live airing.

XL | CLCD 283

Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
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