Devics
Issue #27
Push the Heart (Filter)
By Elizabeth Rhodes
Published: March 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
When 2001’s My Beautiful Sinking Ship and 2003’s The Stars at Saint Andrea catapulted Devics into indie hearts across Europe, States dwellers missed out big time. Fortunately, the Los Angeles duo has returned from a working vacation in Italy to give us the lush atmospherics, mournful vocals, and haunting balladry we need.
Still channeling the loneliness of Beth Orton but abandoning the Portishead grooves of The Stars at Saint Andrea, Devics continue to experiment on their fourth album, Push the Heart. Vocalist Sara Lov sounds less like smoky, sexy Beth Gibbons and more like Feist — especially on “Secret Message to You” — while multi-instrumentalist and occasional singer Dustin O’Halloran uses increasingly organic instrumentation. Love gone astray remains their primary inspiration. “If you can’t find love then you will probably see how we kill ourselves slowly,” O’Halloran sings, exchanging his Nick Cave style for Nick Drake in the cathartic “If We Cannot See.”
A trio of upbeat songs is stuck in the album’s mid-section, which would have diversified the record if they were interspersed throughout. The beat, however, is a welcome addition to the band’s sound — particularly in the PJ Harvey-esque “Just One Breath.” Devics have always underplayed their rhythm section, and the rest of the album is screaming for creative rhythm work.
Devics’ specialties are soft, slow ballads with gentle waves of climax, like the wistfully intimate “Salty Seas.” To pull these off, the lyrical and melodic ideas have to be exceptional. On Push the Heart, they are.
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