How It Ends

Devotchka | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cicero Recordings
• ASIN: B0002Y4SVG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,604 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #47 in Music > World Music > Europe > Eastern Europe > Gypsy

Track Listings

1. You Love Me

2. The Enemy Guns

3. No One Is Watching

4. Twenty-Six Temptations

5. How It Ends

6. Charlotte Mittnacht (The Fabulous Destiny Of...)

7. We're Leaving

8. Dearly Departed

9. Such A Lovely Thing

10. Too Tired

11. Viens Avec Moi

12. This Place Is Haunted

13. Lunnaya Pogonka

14. Reprise

Editorial Reviews

Named the #1 'Unsigned Band in America' by CMJ NMR, DeVotchKa's third full length 'How It Ends' showcases the Denver band's unique sound- a blend of Eastern European, Southwestern, & wholly otherworldly arrangements, which are impossible to define in time or space. Produced by Craig Shumacher, (Calexico, Giant Sand, Evan Dando) 'How It Ends' is filled with mournful ballads & aggressive instrumentals-- built with violin, upright bass, guitar, trumpets, piano, theremin & odd percussion. DeVotchKa & their unique sound have drawn comparisons to like-minded peers Calexico, 16 Horsepower, & Bright Eyes.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven for me, but can't get enough of the highlights March 27, 2008

By JeFF Stumpo

Format:Audio CD

For me, How It Ends is a somewhat uneven album - I'll specifically note which songs I like and don't like below - but I find myself listening to the pieces I do like over and over (and over).

The album starts off a bit iffy for me. "You Love Me" is forgettable. I don't hate it, it's just not particularly better or worse than any other song I'd hear on the radio.

"The Enemy Guns" signals a change in pace and style and message, and it is a welcome one. There's a visceral energy here that got me to keep listening.

"No One Is Watching" is a 28-second instrumental, which would suggest to me a transition track, but it doesn't match up with the prior or next tracks in any way, shape, or form. It's an interesting sound, but is too short to "get into" and doesn't get us from A to B. Throwaway track.

"Twenty-Six Temptations" is the first track that made me think there was something imaginative happening on the album. A bassline produced by tuba? A high, haunting voice over a latin rhythm? It's a song that made me work to understand it. That's a rare thing, and appreciated here.

"How It Ends" is beautiful - sparse and repetitive in a proper way, excellent use of crescendo just after the chorus, sad. Another keeper. It also follows "Twenty-Six Temptations" in a good way, thematically.

"Charlotte Mittnacht (The Fabulous Destiny of...)" is a wonderful instrumental piece. Whereas "No One Is Watching" just sort of sticks out, "Charlotte Mittnacht" acts, for me, as a surreal followup to "How It Ends" as well as developing in its own right. Can you have trance music without the thumping electronica? Trance polka? Because this is a polka, but polka as conceived by someone living inside the painting Starry Night....

"We're Leaving" keeps up the energy. I'm once again jarred as, after the Parisian/Slavic (if it sounds odd combining those two, listen to the whole piece to understand why) feel of "Charlotte Mittnacht," we come across a Mariachi band. In contrast to the happy brass, the lead singer's voice is desperate solitary here, and it works excellently. What begins as a carpe diem message slowly drowns in its own history, and the singer who exuberantly leaves is left alone.

"Dearly Departed" on the other hand, annoys me to no end. It may because the lyrics here are just insipid. I don't look to DeVotchKa for great lyrics, but after the lonely power of "We're Leaving," it just sounds obnoxious and thin to hear a drawn out "Sweetheart / How I miss your heart / Beating next to mine."

"Such A Lovely Thing" picks up the pace yet again, a rollicking, near-drunk romp through several ethnic styles that spirals faster and faster as the piece goes on, nearly spinning out of control but managing to just continually raise the bar for five minutes.

"Too Tired" gives us a moment to calm down with a crooning love song(set to a glockenspiel so high it might be a music box). Again, the oddly paired elements blend beautifully here.

"Viens Avec Moi" is an off-key wonder. Make the normally high voice an effective bassline, pair it with a frenetic accordion, and just dance (dirty). I wish U2 could have heard this song when working on Zooropa.

"This Place Is Haunted" does nothing for me. It's nice, it's pretty, but doesn't stick out in my head hours later. Worse, it sticks out at first because it is so different than "Viens Avec Moi." No time to come down, just jumping into harps and softness. On its own, it may work, but the poor placement on the album is problematic for me.

"Lunnaya Pogonka," another instrumental piece, is once more action-packed, but a creepier piece, one that takes its time coming up and then shows you the aftermath. A better followup to "Viens Avec Moi," and probably would have been the best way to end the album - it takes us into DeVotchKa's crazy layering of sound, but then lets us down and shows the lonely end to the party as well. The most varied piece on the album.

"Reprise" is OK. Sorry to damn with faint praise, but reprises work best when the album as a whole has a consistent arc to it. These songs did not, and so the concept of a reprise seems tacked on to me.

I find myself giving a couple of songs five stars, a few more than that four stars, and then a couple of twos. As a whole, I think the album could have been arranged with more thought, but I ultimately think it worth four stars. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed... October 24, 2006

By Sandy B Ande

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I can't stop listening to my DeVotchKa CDs. Over and over. Because something new has to be devoured, not sampled, right? Anyway, I can't get over how pretty their songs are. They use so many different instruments, they're like a rock orchestra that's traveled around the globe and taken samples from music everywhere. Listening to it is like being transported. It's magical. The lyrics are poetic, sometimes so sweet you wanna cry and sometimes so sad you wanna cry. And Nick Urata's voice is one of my favorites now. It's almost operatic at times, dramatic, romantic, and like an old lover calling you home. The music is very cinematic for sure - grand and gorgeous. I'm so glad to have seen Miss Sunshine - not only because it's such a great film, but because I would never have known of DeVotchKa. And they have brightened my world. Even the sad songs are hopeful in sound if not in lyric, and I just feel uplifted after hearing them.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Original, Amazing, Uncontrolable talent. March 7, 2006

By Brian J

Format:Audio CD

Devotchka is a band that really hit me sideways and im still reeling. I discovered the band through thier hauntingly fantastic song "How it Ends" which is featured the trailer of the movie "Everything is Illuminated." I had listened to the single for a few months and then decided to research the band, expecting to find a one hit wonder that couldnt live up to "How it ends". I couldnt have been more wrong. Song after song is brilliantly written, and sounds like nothing else you have ever heard.

And to the two star review on here. You gripe is that you like Gogol and not this band, and say its becuase this band wasnt that lively. Devotchka IS NOT a Punk band. Not only are they not a Punk Band, but they are not this Yellow Card, Simple Plan, Fallout Boy trash. This is a band that has lyrics that are written as smoothly and interestingly as classics John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and others. The music carries the wind of marachi music, with russian music that mixes in a beautiful Way.

Get this album and become hooked.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DeVotchKa does it again October 5, 2004

By J. Dennis

Format:Audio CD

While not a complete departure from their previous album, "Una Volta," "How It Ends" certainly has a different feel. It has an almost orchestral feel, though it is performed primarily by the band's four members. It feels like the band wrote this album as though it should always be played in a great concert hall, as the grandiose sound seems too big for a bar or rock dive. DeVotchKa have done a great thing in branching out further and not simply retracing the paths they have already walked. Certainly a band that deserves continued attention.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonder-Full January 11, 2007

By Gannon Murphy

Format:Audio CD

One source describes DeVotchKa as "a four piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble that fuses Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero, and Mariachi music with American punk and folk roots." Personally, I can only describe their music as among the BEST I have ever heard. It is brooding at times, uplifting at others, always thoughtful, narratively lyrical (each song tells a sort of short story), and solidly melodic without ever being mawkish, phony, or fruity. Just good music.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The most unjustly ignored American band December 30, 2004

By J. Sanders

Format:Audio CD

How It Ends is the best popular music album of 2004, by far. Fine songs (although you have to have some tolerance for sweetness, both in melody and lyrics), professional playing, unique instruments, strong lead vocals and a seemless integration of various folk styles with classic pop structure--it is wholly unlike anything else you will hear this year. Wait and see, this will show up on a lot of year-end best lists, especially on public and independent radio, where it's been getting a lot of play. For perspective, my other favorites this year were Fiery Furnaces, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire and the Walkmen.