Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (XL)
Text: Phil Hebblethwaite
For album five, Dev has expanded the size of his band and dramatically upped his range to include soul, jazz and pop.
It's mostly good, although you're forced to wait till the second half for the real pearls. At seventy-one minutes, it could have been shorter and you wonder too whether his do-it-at-home production is becoming an enemy.
Too much of this suffers under an echoey and flat sheen.
