DeVotchKa
DeVotchKa
Curse Your Little Heart
(Ace Fu)
A covers EP with an LP’s heart, DeVotchKa’s cinematic treatises recall both Calexico and The Arcade Fire.
Following a long break to tour and score Little Miss Sunshine, the upcoming Steve Carell feature, DeVotchKa’s all-too-brief Curse Your Little Heart polkas all over its source material. While their dramatic cover of Siouxsie & The Banshees’ “The Last Beat Of My Heart” gets a lot of attention because it was suggested by and sounds like Arcade Fire, there’s always been a kinship in the two bands’ resourceful arrangements. Likewise, a propulsive rendering of the traditional “El Zopilote Mojado” would never be out of Café Tacuba’s wacky realm. However it’s a rebuilt Sinatra standard, “Somethin’ Stupid,” and The Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs” that are redefined by DeVotchKa’s Latin gypsy mating season. Each dashes with uncharacteristic ethnicity, no matter how faithfully Sinatra himself is impersonated and Lou Reed admired.
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— Steve Forstneger
