DeVotchKa: 100 Lovers

DEVOTCHKA'S FIFTH STUDIO LP, 100 Lovers, begins with a gorgeously moody and cinematic wash of synths, strings and piano seeping forth as if water through a crack in a dam. From beneath this swirl of sound, a steady-marching drumbeat subtly emerges, pressure building slowly at first but then more and more rapidly until, finally, the wall holding back the floodwaters bursts in a majestic symphonic crescendo, singer Nick Urata's lovelorn slow-motion wail tumbling head over heels in the resulting torrent.