“Over the Rhine returns to the fierce independent spirit that made them so noteworthy in their beginning... “
- Eightball Indie Report

“Easily the most sublime, passionate and endearing album these gifted artists have ever made."
- The Album Network

“OtR fans will gush over the stripped down sound. On many tracks, lead-singer Karin Bergquist is truly musically naked."
- The Cincinnati Post

“OtR have proven you don’t need a big record label behind you to create valid beautiful art."
- City Beat , Cincinnati

“Possibly the best release of 1996."
- Prism Magazine, Philadelphia

“There’s nothing quite like standing on a foot-wide window ledge in the Hyatt in downtown Chicago watching passersby while listening to quiet music turned up loud. The speakers are very tiny, the sublime piano gets distorted just a bit, and the melancholy beauty of the female lead singer’s voice takes power over the lives of the people walking by on the street. When the Chopin-like piano intro fades a bit to accommodate her voice singing, “What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be," the heartache of each person on the sidewalk below becomes apparent.

Chicago is cold, very cold in March, and though the room is warm, breath on the window fogs it anyway. The fog seems like a part of the music. Only the most beautiful music can do this, envelop the environment, absorb the world into itself. Beautiful music changes the way the world is seen.

This is just “Latter Days", the first song on Over the Rhine’s new album Good Dog Bad Dog, released on their own label, Imaginary Records, (*currently available on Virgin/Backporch). It’s been almost two years since the Cincinnati quartet’s last album, Eve. That album was just like its namesake: very feminine, yet dark and spontaneous, almost primitive in its wash of electric guitars and muddy blues.

Good Dog Bad Dog is quiet, like the river Eve must have found after being ejected from the Garden. The title suggests the simplified version of the Lutheran doctrine of total depravity that circulates Sunday School classes: “There’s a good dog and a bad dog inside each of us, and we must choose to make the good dog win." Of course, no one ever tells us how to make the good dog win, and that is where this album sits, with its eyes toward heaven and its feet in the mud, Eve remembering life before the apple.

Good Dog Bad Dog is a collection of tunes that bassist Linford Detweiler describes in the liner notes as a “bare-boned mess of songs which had been outlined after dark in my third story bedroom." Over the Rhine had planned to re-record the songs with a producer until they unexpectedly parted ways with IRS Records, their label at the time, which went out of business shortly after.

So Over the Rhine released the homespun versions of the songs instead. (If you listen closely, you can hear kitchen sounds behind the music.) The result is probably their most powerful work to date. Reminiscent at times of R.E.M.’s powerful Automatic for the People, or Innocence Mission’s Glow, Good Dog Bad Dog surges with deep, still emotion that swells to fill whatever room it happens to be played in.

It’s not all quiet, soulful piano, though. The second track, “All I Need is Everything" is a moving, unplugged rock song about rebirth. Vocalist Karin Bergquist’s voice has never been more subtle and powerful. She showed her skill at bringing jazz and blues vocal technique into rock music on Eve, but here she adds a range of quieter skills to her arsenal.

When she emotes, “I’ve been fingering the flame like tomorrow’s martyr," her voice breaks just enough and then fattens with a full melancholy that makes Morrissey seem like the happiest fellow in merry England. The refreshing thing is, the mood never stays sad. “All I Need is Everything" is a song of joy, of rebirth and Bergquist directs the mood to that joy as easily as she tugs at the sadness.

Each song is its own world of emotion. “Etcetera Whatever" is a gorgeous, working-class love song, while “I Will Not Eat The Darkness" is a pulsing instrumental, no doubt referring to both Eve, the biblical figure, and Eve, the album.

“Faithfully Dangerous" surely could be Adam singing to his Eve: “No matter what they say you’ll always be faithfully dangerous, lost and lovely, so beautiful to me." “The Seahorse" finds the couple longing for perfect love again, and for eternity.

“Everyman’s Daughter is a striking ballad that twists the Beatles’ “All is One" idea into something actually interesting and true: “Who am I and whose invention? This armour’s full of dust. There’s so much of us in each other. If I hate you you’re my best reminder of all I wish I was."

“A Gospel Number" is well, just that, while “Poughkeepsie" rings in the ears like an old Lutheran hymn. Bergquist’s voice soars and dips into canyons here. She proves that white girls can sing with true soul when she elates, “I ride on the backs of angels tonight. I take to the sky with all their might."

The album segues into a classical acoustic solo piece by Ric Hordinski, the band’s skilled guitarist on “Willoughby," and then romps through the jazzed-up spoken word serenade of “Jack’s Valentine."

The record closes out with two love songs, one to God and then one to a human lover. “Happy to Be So" is Eve yearning for the former closeness of the Garden: “If I try to pray, it’s like a game of red rover. I take a real good run at it, but I can’t break through. Don’t matter anyway. I’m so redhanded. The game is over, I’ll just tell the truth." Still, hope is not lost as she realizes, “I know a love that will not let me go." The song reaches chill-bump perfection when the French horn/mellotron movement mixes with Bergquist’s sullen voice to close the number. Then, the album fades out with the airy, happy-go-lucky country ballad, “Go Down Easy."

With Good Dog, Bad Dog, Over The Rhine have achieved what few bands do. They have created a work that dips into the regions of the soul and inspires new sight, new life, and creativity. This is an album to fall in love by, or find God with. Unfortunately, since they’ve released it on their own label, it takes a bit of work to get.

It is definitely worth that work."
- John Davis, East Carolinian Review