ARTIST: Devics
TITLE: Push The Heart
LABEL: Filter US Recordings
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 192kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 43min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-03-07
RIP DATE: 2006-02-08
Track List
----------
01. Lie to Me 3:04
02. Secret Message to You 4:58
03. Salty Seas 4:13
04. Song For a Sleeping Girl 4:36
05. Distant Radio 4:54
06. Just One Breath 3:55
07. Moments 4:44
08. If We Cannot See 5:11
09. City Lights 3:57
10. Come Up 4:01
Release Notes:
Devics return in 2006 with "Push The Heart", the stunning follow-up to "The Stars
At Saint Andrea", their critically-acclaimed second album released three years ago
in February 2003.
Devics are vocalist Sara Lov and multi-instrumentalist and sometime singer Dustin
O'Halloran, a musical duo from Los Angeles who found a home in Italy after signing
to Bella Union records in the late 90s.
Devics returned to LA in 2004 to complete work on this their third album. Their
fans will not be disappointed. "Push the Heart" is a revelation, a new beginning
for Devics that highlights past triumphs and gives the listener a glimpse of new
musical destinations.
The album begins with "Lie to Me," a charming platform for OÆHalloranÆs cascading
pianos and LovÆs yearning vocals, calling out over a ghost town of disembodied
whistles and funereal organ. Second track "A Secret Message to You" shows Devics
talent for finding inspiration everywhere, keeping time with the found art of
OÆHalloran bashing out a letter on an old typewriter. "Song for a Sleeping Girl"
is an opportunity for the listener to relish OÆHalloranÆs sweet soliloquy to a
sleeping sweetheart.
Underscoring OÆHalloranÆs talent for combining modern-sounding production with
classic chord progression is "Distant Radio," which finds Lov riding the melodic
rise and fall of verse and chorus on the poetry of intangible connections. LovÆs
grand rumination on lost love, "Just One Breath", is a future Devics classic with
descending guitar lines that spin dark mystery. "Moments" finds OÆHalloran in
rolling six-eight mode creating a mini-film noir soundtrack of upright bass,
piano, and brushes on snare while LovÆs words - "eyes and tears and aches and
bones and gold and fire" - rise like plumes of cigarette smoke on celluloid.
A rare gem with OÆHalloran at the mic, "If We Cannot See" is a majestic, epic
waltz with an anthemic chorus that approximates Leonard Cohen fronting Coldplay.
This is followed by "City Lights", a dainty, heartbreaking waltz which leads
perfectly into "Come Up", the albumÆs haunting final track.