This article is not complete. It is not a fully-formed, finished piece. And I've struggled for a while with trying to get the thoughts and emotions out of my head and into this article, but they're resolutely stuck and refuse to budge. And I'm running out of time to work on it. It very likely will never be finished.

So, I will post this barely-half-done article, naked and fragile as it is, for you to read. For your gentle comments. Perhaps it will illuminate as to what I hear when I listen to DRUNKARD'S PRAYER. Perhaps it will inform your listening. Perhaps you can state it better than I did...

DRUNKARD'S PRAYER
=================
There is tremendous strength and self-awareness in DRUNKARD'S PRAYER, a 2005 recording from Cincinnati-based husband-and-wife band Over The Rhine.

Realistic modern cinema, at its best, is life with the mundane stuff cut out. This album brings to mind a long sit-down conversation between embattled lovers, weary after many wars, who are evaluating the landscape of their relationship. With the mundane stuff cut out. I don't pretend to know if this relationship is based on the relationship between Karin & Linford. I believe it is not about their own relationship (and do not want to pry if it is); therefore, this review refers to the characters in the story woven by this album as "male" and "female".

This album captures the subtle turn of the head, the shifting of the eye, the move of a hand, that indicate important decisions being made in this relationship.

1* I WANT YOU TO BE MY LOVE: I have decided that out of all the possibilities, I want YOU to be my love. Starts sounding strong, but the true strength comes out when the female sings "like I want you"... confessional and emotionally honest. True strength is in letting go of control, and the females's voice soars upward from the controlled, somewhat clipped and decisive-sounding "I want you to be my love...". This song, to me, is about REASON versus EMOTION.

2* BORN: This song sounds like a mantra -- "I was born to laugh, I was born to love, I will learn to love without fear". The doubling of the female's voice makes it sound like it might be a voice in her head, trying to convince her that she is worthy of these blessings. I believe that I am capable of love, despite the things of the world that have hardened my heart. I am capable of laughter and worthy of laughing, loving, and being loved. At some level, these things are what I'm born for. This song seems to be the point in this metaphorical relationship when a problem is revealed... "put your elbows on the table / I will listen long as I am able / there's nowhere I'd rather be". The doubling ends near the end of the song, as if the two voices combine into one unified thought.

3* DRUNKARD'S PRAYER: A broken-down emotional revelation of the importance of the OTHER PARTNER in the relationship. I imagine the female crumpled in a heap on the floor, all her fighting done and all her defenses down, having gotten, finally, to the simple understanding that she needs the male. "You're my water, you're my wine, / You're my whiskey from time to time".

4* BLUER: Doubling again. Here is my consideration of life without the other partner... "Bluer than the blue devils, bluer than this pale angel, bluer than all my troubles, love is never far from danger". Linford is singing backup on this song, adding the male perspective of how blue the male would be without the female.

5* SPARK: Self-evaluation, the rolling-up of the sleeves and the getting down to work. "Obsessions with self-preservation faded when I threw my fear away. (It's not a thing you can imagine)... / You either lose your fear or spend your life with one foot in the grave." This song is an invitation to "lay our cold weapons down" and "awaken dreaming". And then, encouragingly, "I awaken; dreaming. Everything we lost can be found". We can repair this.

6* HUSH NOW (STELLA'S TARANTELLA): Let's get back to the simple times and revisit the fun in this relationship that drew us together in the first place. "Spin me around this kitchen floor like a carnival, troubadour, I know we're only two big clowns in a one-ring circus" and "When I'm in the arms of my dreamy boy it still makes me weak in the knees" and "Come now my sweet little breathing boy. I'm listening hard to your heart. It's as strong as a lion's, boy. Let's leave here and make a new start".

7* LOOKIN' FORWARD: The new day dawns. Time to look forward, acknowledging the past. We're informed by the past and our battles, and we can take this knowledge and move together with a renewed sense of direction. This song has the most 'production' elements on it to this point in the recording, a sharp contrast to the spare arrangements and instrumentations of the previous songs, as if the male & female are already seeing the growth from the tilling of the ground they did. "In the daylights... So much hindsight, showing me what I already know".

8* LITTLE DID I KNOW: I didn't know how close to losing you I was, until I started considering life without you. I didn't know how much I needed you until you weren't there. "And this ache is gonna break me, love, until you come back home. / Right or wrong, there is no home without you. / And these eyes are never gonna dry... I never knew how I could cry until I thought I'd really lost you". Now I know that this relationship was approaching 'critical' on both sides. The extended sax/piano at the end seems to be the male's way of silently (without vocals) affirming his feelings as expressed by the female.

9* WHO WILL GUARD THE DOOR: Somewhere in me, there is a need for companionship and protection. To be with someone, someone who will watch my back. A simple plea for protection, acknowledgement of the need for companionship. A child-like asking for the other to be that protection.

10* FIREFLY: I will remember our past. The things that we have encountered. What we've gone through. These things anger and upset me. My feelings about you -- about us -- are informed by this history.

Getting to and through this point in a relationship is scary, but the payoff for that fear is a much more solid relationship where both parties understand their own emotions as well as those of the other.

The album ends in that moment of peace when all our wars are behind us. The male and female in this story move closer together and begin taking tentative steps into their future.

TECHNICAL:
From a technical perspective, this is a clean and clear recording. Sound levels are good, little hiss was observed. Sonic range is good. There were a couple of ...vocal pitch issues... in a couple songs (indicated to me from one who knows such things FAR better than I do), but overall, the notes (music and vocal) are right on and true.

I haven't heard any of it yet. I'm betting my "2nd Day" shipping option might not end up paying off.

~fff

Although the album is clearly "about" Karin and Linford's relationship (they've said as much), I don't think all the songs are. Spark strikes me as an anti-war statement (note the reference to John Lennon), and we know Karin originally wrote Who Will Guard the Door in reaction to her father's death. I'm not sure Lookin' Forward is specifically about the two of them either.

A lot of good thoughts here though, Drew. I'm still too busy listening to say very much at this point, but certainly I think this album is among the best and most cohesive of their canon and achieves an unparalleled level of intimacy with the listener. We're all let in to share in K&L's quiet triumph in renewing their troubled relationship. It's a very special thing to be an Over the Rhine fan.

The words I'm using to describe this album are a series of "altar calls" aimed at moving the listener from quiet, self-reflective moments within our own relationships towards reconciliation and redemption of our own love for each other. Karin & Linford have once again given us a glimpse of how the gospel reveals itself through the frailty and hopes of human relationships. The pace of most of these songs reminds me of those moments in church where "Just As I Am" prompted one more hand to raise....its difficult to listen to these offerings without being both uncomfortable and inspired.

Musically, I think this album stands more on Linford's mellifluous piano work and the cast of other instrumentalists than with Karin's vocal renderings. Moreover, the hand of the musician casts a stronger influence on the songs than that of the lyracist. Still, the dynamic duo manage to blend melody and voice into their own blend of homespun-adagio that draws us time and again into their world.

In the end, Over the Rhine gives us a genuine, yet carefully rendered glimpse of a relationship that took the extraordinary step articulating its source and character. We come to understand that communicating the depth of our love with those we cherish is the most artistic expression we can endeavor to create.

Oh Lord, do you see my hand?

David
(historyprof)

Being a newbie, and not used to all the technical tricks...I don't know how to quote you Keith from NY, but in a previous post what you said really struck me....


keith from ny
Posted Yesterday, 06:40 AM
 
Although the album is clearly "about" Karin and Linford's relationship (they've said as much), I don't think all the songs are. Spark strikes me as an anti-war statement (note the reference to John Lennon)


I went right back to that song and reread the lyrics...and found an answer to my feelings regarding the war and the whisper of hope I needed to hear. I have really felt hopeless lately.

Thank you Karen and Linford, and thank you keith from ny for pointing me in the right direction. Now that I have heard it a hundred times this morning, charted it out to play on my guitar and sing it for myself.......I know what song will be in my head all day!

My fav track is definitely 'Firefly'... that's about all I'm feelin' right now (Born, Spark and Who Will Guard the Door are also good, too). The rest is great, but I don't know if it'll make "fav release of March 29th" status, yet... I mean, hell, we've got Dissociatives, Nellie McKay bonus, Beck, Glen Phillips...

Looking forward to Th/Fri of this week... 'Firefly' live?

~fff

Interesting.

I won't go into that kinda detail, but I will say that every once in a while there is some piece of art reaches the "can do no wrong" point, and this one reached it, for the first time on a short road trip where I had time to pop it in, uninterrupted, and get to know it.

In that "zone" where I feel the ebb and flow of the album, not just its songs, there is a rhythm that is more like meta-rhythm, an idea behind each track that carries them all along the same river... and it's not so often that I find it in music anymore. Tracks here and there come together to hint at it, but rarely a whole album.

And in that do-no-wrong place, track 9 could have been a polka set to the flugahorn and I'd have tapped my foot and smiled.

Well, maybe not. But you get it.

Thanks, K & L.