Devics

A word quite over-used in many a music review is "haunting.” While really it should mean something that makes one uncomfortable, in a musical sense it usually connotes a feeling that sticks around long after the actual notes have disappeared. This is almost always used in a positive sense, so obviously the feeling hanging around your head is one that prods and intrigues. It is with that long definition that one can now appreciate it when it is stated that the music Devics make on Push the Heart is easily haunting. The twosome of Sara Lov and Dustin O’Halloran ably push the emotive buttons due to Lov’s gifted and suggestive voice and backing music that crosses from pining cabaret to British-style melancholy. One of the most inspired openings of the album is found in "Secret Message to You,” as a waltzing typewriter combines with a elegiac accordion to create the perfect backdrop to Lov’s calming utterances. Even greater is the Richard Hawley-esque "If We Cannot See,” where O’Halloran takes the lead and creates a great slice of depressive pop. As stated, Push the Heart is, in every sense of the word, haunting.