Review: DeVotchKa’s ‘100 Lovers’

March 9, 2011, 12:44 a.m.

Review: DeVotchKa's '100 Lovers'
Courtesy of ANTI

DeVotchKa is best known for scoring the independent film, “Little Miss Sunshine.” With the release of their fifth album, this Denver-based band proves that it owes its reputation not to the Academy Award-winning film, but rather to its stunning ability to transmit emotions through its exuberant, heartwarming brand of singular indie-world-folk music.

100 Lovers” is an amazing whirlwind tour of tango rhythms, mariachi horns, soaring string instrumentation and front man Nick Urata’s distinct slurred vocals. An interesting mélange of genres, the album starts off on the nostalgic notes of “The Alley”. It is a beautiful opening track that builds on several layers of sound, beginning with sweeping orchestral strings, a piano line and steadily building marching drums. When Urata’s voice explodes unto the carefully crafted soundscape, it harnesses the instrumentation swelling around it and adds depth and character to the otherwise too film-friendly harmony.

And what a voice this is. All throughout the album, Urata’s voice captures the ear in a way that none of his contemporaries on the indie scene can match: his slurred vocals are unquestionably the central part of the album. Mashing words together, dropping syllables and adopting several different kinds of accents, Urata is able to alter his vocals to match the cultural context many of the songs on the album boast. On “Bad Luck Heels”, which features mariachi brass and dansón influences, certain vocals are in Italian, slurred so artfully into the vocals in English that it’s completely impossible to distinguish where one language ends and the other begins. The vowel sounds are flattened, the consonants slurred, making it difficult to discern the actual lyrics without having to consult the printout in the album. The same is true for “Ruthless”, with words in Spanish and French sprinkled throughout the vocals and flamenco influences on the guitar line and dance rhythms. As backup to Urata’s scene-stealing vocals, Jeanie Schroder’s (also on double bass and sousaphone) sweet, flat tone provides a middle ground, which manages to connect the strong instrumentation to the equally strong vocals without one overbearing the other.

“100 Other Lovers”, the quasi-title track, comes third on the album. The dreamy quality in the music is courtesy of the theremin, an early electronic instrument that sounds softer than a synth, which suffuses the recording with an antique, eerie quality when layered with orchestral strings. Handclaps and a tambourine in the background mitigate the somber mood and inject youthful nonchalance into the cocktail, while the vocals again show off that idiosyncratic mumble.

“The Man from San Sebastián” strikes up a tango rhythm with the very specific use of a bandoneón, a wind instrument much like the accordion that is characteristic of popular Argentinean music. The song is revved up and fast-paced with liberal use of the pedal on the guitar, which seems to parallel the achingly emotional bandoneón line. There’s a sensuality to the rhythm that only Latin flavor can bring to music. The climax of the song, an ascending line on violins and bandoneón that drops suddenly and is drowned out by the guitar, is the most dramatic moment on the album. It’s a furious, sensual whirlwind of music and the definite apex of the album, with a final note that resonates for the whole length of the album.

There are several instrumental tracks scattered throughout the album, some under the telling titles of “Interlude” which showcase the range of sounds the band has come to master and which bring the band’s most hated genre label into mind: gypsy punk. One such track is the closer, “Sunshine”. With spacey, swirling string instruments and digital vibes from the theremin, the band closes the curtain on the fifth act of their dramatic showcase, this time with the spotlight firmly on them.

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