Customer Reviews

Curse Your Little Heart

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't know at first if I wanted to buy an album of mostly covers, but I've listened to this as much as the other DeVotchKa I have. They make the songs their own, in their unique style, and Nick's voice is as passionate and versatile as ever. The Last Beat of My Heart is just gorgeous. I can never listen to it loud enough. If you like How It Ends and Little Miss Sunshine, you'll like this as well.

This cd is on par with Una Volta and How it ends. The Last Beat of My Heart is the best track, and Something Stupid will stick in your brain long after you have finished listening. Only drawback to this cd is that it is too short! I highly recommend anything by Devotchka.

Gypsy-Spanish indie-rockers DeVotchKa have gotten better with each album they produced, ranging from rough-hewn ethnic music to a sweeping, smoother sound.

And the EP "Curse Your Little Heart" is very much in the vein of their last album musically, though the songs are mostly someone else's -- Sinatra, Velvet Underground, Sousxie, with one lone song they made themselves. It's a fun, polished little offering that should keep fans satisfied until their next album.

It opens with the swooning fiddle and peppy tune of "I Cried Like A Silly Boy," which sounds like a song that should be sung under ivy-twined balconies. "You wrote me letters I didn't read/I know I didn't, you know I didn't/still I caressed you, sang you to sleep," Nick Urata croons in his mellow voice, as the fiddle twists around.

Then they merrily ratatat into the sinuous, sensual melody of "Curse Your Little Heart," followed by the dramatic guitar folkpop of "Last Beat of My Heart," which could have been a B-side from their last album "How It Ends." It has the same melancholy, expansive sound. A rather tongue-in-cheek version of "Somethin' Stupid" -- seriously, imagine Sinatra as a gypsy -- followed by the hard, dark, haunted sound of "Venus in Furs," and finishing up with mad mariachi tune "El Zopilote Mojado."

DeVotchKa is one of those bands that you listen to once, and who manage to stick themselves in your brain after that. Their lively mix of traditional Eastern European and Spanish music with the indierock vibe is getting better with time, and this time around they seem to be having fun with some odder choices. (Seriously, Sinatra?)

Urata and Tom Hagerman take the front with lots of trumpet and brassy Sousaphone, powerful guitar and a flexible violin that can twist itself around the other instruments, such as the exquisite, sweeping intro to the third song. And Shawn King plays some really wicked drums on the second song.

And at the heart of it is Urata's soulful voice, which isn't perfect, but that really erupts with power and emotion. He also tries out different vocalizations here: a slightly stuffy nightclub sound, a concerned lover, a more nasal Lou-Reedish sound, and the usual heartfelt wails.

"Curse Your Little Heart" is another winner for DeVotchKa, a colourful little EP that tries out various sounds for size. And most of them even fit, too.

Friends of mine have been into DeVotcha for a long time, but I never got into them until recently. I had seen Little Miss Sunshine about 4 times before I looked up the soundtrack and realized DeVotchka was responsible for a good portion of it. Investigating further, I heard "I Cried Like a Silly Boy". I was instantly hooked, downloaded all their cds from Ruckus and have been sold ever sense. It's a good band to fall completely in love with annd they have a great combination of sounds (not wholly original but borrowing beautifully). Enjoy it.

... like one of these miniature French pastries: one superb bite that keeps you asking for more. So, take your time to savour it.
Perfect following to How it Ends, Curse Your Little Heart is a fun, eclectic mix of very different songs and styles the band makes their own perfectly. My favorite "reprise" is definitely Venus in Furs, with a quite intoxicating beat and gorgeous string arrangements. It mixes the punk music undertones of the original song with the band's own sounds.
I find the voice of lead singer Nick Urata quite improved over the previous album, more in control. As some said before me, it is not perfect, but I think that's what's seductive about it.
As different and somewhat strange the music of Devotchka might sound to some, once you get acquainted with their work, it becomes quite addictive. It has become one of my favorite bands, probably because of the scope of their influences and talents.
Check Una Volta as well (and the inevitable How it Ends, of course, if you don't own it already) for their early work.

(DISCLAIMER: I need way more than 5 stars. Something like the Crab Nebula might suffice.)

Someone has to point out that this album is an intensely concentrated dollop of total brilliance, like the best paintings of Titian or the best poems of Rimbaud. Thematically, the songs are surprisingly unified: the callow lover defeated by a more experienced (or cynical) woman. He has fallen in love, sincerely, with someone who's been burned and is impervious to heartbreak. Nick Urata's voice conveys both the anguish of sorrow and its delectability.

Listening to this album and its evocation of romantic disappointment, I was reminded of the following passage in James' The Varieties:
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"In this depression and dreadful uninterrupted suffering, I don't condemn life. On the contrary, I like it and find it good. Can you believe it? I find everything good and pleasant, even my tears, my grief. I enjoy weeping, I enjoy my despair. I enjoy being exasperated and sad. I feel as if these were so many diversions, and I love life in spite of them all. I want to live on. It would be cruel to have me die when I am so accommodating. I cry, I grieve, and at the same time I am pleased -- no, not exactly that -- I know not how to express it. But everything in life pleases me. I find everything agreeable, and in the very midst of my prayers for happiness, I find myself happy at being miserable. It is not I who undergo all this -- my body weeps and cries; but something inside of me which is above me is glad of it all." Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff, i. 67
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The grief brings joy, for having suffered, one can live the dramatic actualities of DeVotchKa's music: the orgasmic wailing and sullen rumbling of Hagerman's accordion.

Even the remakes on this CD are awesome. I listen to this all the time. Check out the samples and it is very unique, different even from their own efforts (like the soundtrack to Little Miss Sunshine). Very solid and very worth a listen.

This music is such a departure from mainstream, or from anything I've heard yet (though I'm no expert). Each song is a slightly different mix of rock, russian folk, burlesque, bluegrass, and some other things I can't name, possibly because it's just so... different. Yet every song seems to communicate directly with my body. I love this album, as well as the rest of their music, especially the album How it Ends.