DeVotchKa Albums (4)
'A Mad and Faithful Telling'
Release Date 1/1/2008
Tracks 10
Label Anti/Epitaph
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Like the stately, mature parents of Gogol Bordello, DeVotchKa have created a unique niche by mixing eastern and western traditions into the same pot. A Mad and Faithful Telling is their first release since the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack expanded their fan base tenfold, and it continues the group's unique cultural mishmash, sounding like a Morrissey-fronted Calexico playing norteño tunes in an Eastern European ballroom. It's a veritable circus of styles, none of which are normally associated with Colorado's musical climate. But that doesn't stop DeVotchKa from turning in a performance that is at once elegant and wildly passionate, with bandleader Nick Urata leading the pack like a half-drunken opera school dropout. His vocals are uniquely stunning, interlaced with bits of Spanish and brimming with vibrato. With help from his three bandmates and a five-piece string section, he turns even the most somber lyrics ("So this is the city? So this is progress? How can something so pretty become such a mess?") into the sort of sweeping serenades that inspire listeners to raise a wine glass, toast the stereo, and howl along. Elsewhere, the group flirts with spaghetti western music, turning songs like "Head Honcho" and "Undone" into potential candidates for the next Quentin Tarantino film. And lest anyone question DeVotchKa's chops, A Mad and Faithful Telling also includes two lively instrumental numbers: "Comrade Z," which blends mariachi horns with a gypsy-jig beat, and "Strizzalo," an Italian-styled waltz with accordion, tuba, and romantic violins. Bouncing from Mexico City to Prague to Milan to Denver over the course of ten songs, DeVotchKa's fourth full-length shows a band aging gracefully and eccentrically. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
'How It Ends'
Release Date 10/5/2004
Tracks 14
Label Cicero Recordings
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
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, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Produced by 16 Horsepower's Bob Ferbache, DeVotchKa's debut, Supermelodrama, shows a band filled with vigor and paranoia, but with a much distilled and prominent vision. At their most dark and forceful, DeVotchKa sit somewhere between the nervous Radiohead and the most melodic of Talking Heads, due to vocalist Nick Urata's vocal likeness to Thom Yorke and David Byrne, but the band is much more than these influences. To mix it up, DeVotchKa mix regular references to European folk, hints of sunny pop melodies, and angular post-punk ruminations via a mesh of clarinet, accordion, sousaphone, trumpet, percussion, and violin falling over the staggering peaks of the traditional rock & roll bed of guitar, bass, and drums. "Danglin' Feet" leads the album off with the opening bars joyously capturing a vibe similar to the irresistible charm of Joe Meek's classic "Telstar," but the likeness ends when Urata's fevered vocals take over and terrorize the listener through the plans of a suicide. It is followed by the furious and engaging theme song for the band, an intoxicating, Slavic gypsy-sounding melody reaching similar territory in cadence and vitality as the amazing Taraf de Haïdouks often do, and this is what the band is all about. In the first five minutes of Supermelodrama, DeVotchKa travel around the globe without knowledge of or care for the boundaries that have separated popular cultures for centuries, and furthermore do it without sounding choppy or forced. This is the same approach George Harrison took when molding the sitar into John Lennon's "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and fills a very interesting distinction of rock which, surprisingly, has been visited by very few since. At the roots of the clever arrangements, it is nice to find DeVotchKa's songwriting is just as realized and appealing as their sound, and moreover is surprisingly accessible which makes the fact that Supermelodrama is the group's debut all the more impressive. ~ Gregory McIntosh, All Music Guide
