Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
The notoriously kooky singer/songwriter's fifth full-length picks up the thread of 2005's schizophrenic Cripple Crow, alternating between kitschy genre exercises and the sweetly emotive folk songs that have always been his greatest strength.
Liking Devendra Banhart means always readying some kind of apology for him—for misbegotten flutes, for songs about butterflies and little boys, for times when he strips down shirtless to play tambourine. Wincing at it all is part of the project, and much of Banhart's charm derives from the degree to which he mingles a…
Check out our album review of Artist's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon on Rolling Stone.com.
In the early days of Devendra Banhart's career, his ghostly voice singing down the phone and captured on four track was more than enough to lend the eerie mysticism required for his nonsensical material (of course, it didn't hurt that his voice was bewitching no matter the lyrical content).
Throughout, Banhart’s mannered, look-what-I-can-do kook act overshadows his actual talent.
The messiah has returned. He's still a bearded hippie, but now he's dressing up in drag. It's a freaky look on a folkie
Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon review: THIS guy made a mixtape for Lindsey Lohan?