Devotchka How It Ends CD

Live Recording

Devotchka: Shawn King (trumpet, piano, organ, vibraphone, glockenspiel, drums); Jeanie Schroder (vibraphone, bass instrument); Tom Hagerman (vibraphone); Nick Urata.
Personnel: Nick Urata (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, piano, percussion, Theremin); Jeanie Schroder (vocals, tuba); Naim Amor (vocals); Nick Luca (guitar); Tom Hagerman (violin, accordion, piano, triangle); Craig Schumacher (percussion).
Additional personnel: Sarah Thorpe (vocals); Paul Niehaus (pedal steel guitar); Lindsay Emmett (violin); Craig Schumacher (harmonica); Nick Luca.
Audio Mixer: Craig Schumacher.
Recording information: WaveLab Studios, Tucson, AZ.
Photographer: Lisa Siciliano.
The third album from Denver, Colorado's DeVotchKa builds on the sonic blueprint of their first two albums by honing their hybrid of Eastern European gypsy folk, cabaret, noir-ish film music, and guitar-oriented indie rock. It's DeVotchKa's unusual instrumentation that gives the music its unique quality, and the combination of bouzouki, theremin, accordion, vibraphone, and glockenspiel only adds to the exotic, dreamy quality of HOW IT ENDS. The atmospheric opener, "You Love Me," weaves a moody, acoustic spell, while "Twenty-Six Temptations" rides a dark, Latinized rhythm. Whether pumping out gypsy-fueled jams such as "Viens Avec Moi," or opening into moments of heartbreaking beauty such as "Dearly Departed," DeVotchKa plays literate, substantive music, and fans of everyone from Calexico to the Magnetic Fields will find something to enjoy in this eminently listenable release.
Listening to DeVotchKa's third album, any aging '80s indie kid will fall into a what-if daydream. Remember when Morrissey broke up the Smiths? Maybe instead of going solo, the Mozzer should have hooked up with Peter Solowka, who at the time was starting up his own solo project outside the confines of the Wedding Present, a tongue-in-cheek blending of U.K. indie guitar pop and the sounds of his Eastern European homeland called the Ukrainians. DeVotchKa's How It Ends is a dead-brilliant amplification of what that fantasy collaboration might have sounded like. Singer Nick Urata only occasionally leans on the Morrissey-like qualities of his voice, most notably on the opening "You Love Me," but the album explores the amalgam of Eastern European folk melodies and instrumentation with otherwise straightforward indie rock to a much greater extent than the Ukrainians ever managed (and unlike the somewhat similar 3 Mustaphas 3, they have a solid grasp of how to write a catchy pop song as well). They even go so far as to interject a little Calexico-style mariachi influence into the mix, possibly under the influence of producer Craig Schumacher, who's worked with that band and Giant Sand. This is a wide-ranging and thoroughly enjoyable album from start to finish. ~ Stewart Mason

Q (p.97) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he Balkan melancholia of Beirut and Gogol Bordello is not the only trick up the Denver-based four-piece's sleeve: elsewhere they harness the ambitious sweep of Arcade Fire."
Uncut (p.99) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he real ace in their pack is the voice of Nick Urata, a soaring operatic instrument heard to thrilling effect..."
CMJ (p.12) - "[A] work that swells with a haunting desperation and neoclassical grandeur."