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