After three critically lauded albums and a covers EP, Denver, Colorado based DeVotchKa finally recieved the general public notoriety they deserved when they scored the soundtrack to the massively popular film Little Miss Sunshine. DeVotchKa's perfect blend of Eastern-European Gypsy-Folk and Tex-Mex bandito music hit just the right chord with audiences making the soundtrack just as big a hit as the movie and garnered the group a Grammy nomination for Best Soundtrack.

Now that DeVotchKa has the world at its proverbial fingertips nothing would be better for them than to strike while the iron is hot with a new album that encapsulates what they're all about as a band instead of just composers. A Mad & Faithful Telling is definitely that album. Lead vocalist Nick Urata and company have crafted a genius work of sweeping strings, accordions, sousaphones and many other unique instrumentation that proves that DeVotchKa are one of the more inimitable groups out there in music these days. Urata's blend of English and Spanish on the hectic opener "Basso Profundo" is a treat, yet my favorites here tend to be the melodramatic heart-string tuggers like "The Clockwise Witness" and "Undone." And not to be outdone, DeVotchKa still stay faithful to their past instrumental ways with the short but effective Gypsy-stomp "Comrade Z" and the accordion-driven "Strizzalo." A Mad & Faithful Telling is the most accomplished and mature work yet for this Denver group and also its best.