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Music Review: Over the Rhine - "Ohio"
If you have never heard the music of Over the Rhine, you should consider yourself lucky. Let me explain. I often find myself
frustrated because I so often feel there are no more musical gems left uncovered. I wish I could go back to before I heard Over the Rhine
and could discover them all over again. If you haven't heard Over the Rhine, consider yourself lucky because as soon as you listen
to one of their records, you are going to want to own them all. Lyrically, musically, and artistically, they are in my opinion the
best thing going in music today, period. Really.
Ohio is Over the Rhine's masterpiece, and that is saying a lot. Their album "Good Dog Bad Dog" easily sits near the top of my
top five CDs of all time list and I just kind of assumed that they would never match it. With "Ohio", they have.
So let's talk about this record. It opens with the haunting "B.P.M." which I assume stands for Beats per minute but could be wrong... it
never says in the song. Linford Detweiler's upright piano opens this song with its trademark sound and style. Right from the start, you
get the feeling that this record is going to be a little rough around the edges. You can hear the piano creak and move... you can hear Karin
Berquist's microphone turn on before she sings... you can hear traces of a click track in the background. Those rough edges wrapped
around crappy songs would be annoying but here, surrounding music so beautiful, they feel like home.
So anyway, "B.P.M." is amazing with a haunting melody, Beatlesque harmonies and chordings and an ending right out of Sgt. Peppers.
"Show Me" is the first single and sounds like it... with any luck, this will find its way onto AAA playlists and be a big hit. The band
certainly deserves a wider following and this could be the song to deliver.
The title track "Ohio" is an amazing piece of writing, painting a picture of a childhood spent in Ohio and now facing the possibility
of leaving. Piano and Karin's vocals are all this track needs to chill you to the bone.
"Suitcase" is a song about someone walking out on their loved ones. The lines "Stealin away on a sunny day... well aren't you ashamed at all?"
will hit close to home with many.
Disc One closes out with perhaps the best song on the collection, "Changes Come". This song was written in response to Sept. 11 and the following wars.
Some will be freaked out by the use of a certain word in this song but the word is the only one that fits when trying to describe our fallen
world. This song asks big questions... I like that.
Disc Two has a lighter feel to it than Disc One with the inclusion of upbeat songs like "Nobody Number One", "How long have you been stoned?",
and "When you say Love" which features an awesome organ riff going against some steel guitar chickin' pickin'. Great stuff.
Disc Two closes with "How Long", a full on gospel song complete with bluesy organ and gospel choir. This was an unexpected and appreciated
song to hear... I have always thought Karin would sound good singing gospel and here she proves it.
Clocking in at nearly two hours and twenty-one songs, "Ohio" could have suffered from too much music. It doesn't. No songs feel like
throwaways or filler... the whole thing will move you, stir your soul, and challenge your mind. If you've never heard Over the Rhine, start
right here.
Review by Greg Adkins
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