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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely a film worth hearing, May 2, 2001
.... I'm not sure how anyone can conceivably call Over the Rhine's music "vacuous," "vapid," "bland," and "shallow," because it's nothing of the sort. Now, if you're a fan of Over the Rhine because of Good Dog Bad Dog (my very favorite CD - I make friends with people just so I can give it to them), you'll find Films for Radio something of an acquired taste, as is the case with all of their albums, because each one is different - the band does indeed refuse to be tied to one genre. But it's a taste you'll acquire if you're patient enough to give it a few listens.Far from being shallow, Over the Rhine confronts religious doubt ("'Cause like all true believers, I am truly skeptical of all that I have seen"), identity crises ("I don't know who else to be; more and more I'm secretly just me"), and that frustrating ineffability of things ("Words in my head, like misfits after midnight begging for a light; words left unsaid...they may never see the light of day, and that may be okay"). Karin and Linford package this up with their usual poetic and often sensual lyrics, epitomized in "The Body is a Stairway of Skin," a titillating series of body metaphors culminating in "the body is an apple on a tree," etc.; it's deceptively simple but reminiscent of the third chapter of Genesis and Sappho as well. You can criticize the way Over the Rhine chooses to produce their songs on this CD. I am suspicious that this album's release on their new label encouraged them to deviate from their recent spare and contemplative style to more drum loops and electric guitars and keyboards. But I am as much attached to spareness and contemplation as anyone else, and I still love Films for Radio. Lyrically, this CD stands alongside any of their other work, and far from echoing the vapidity of (post)modernism, confronts it and fills it with cautious but undeniable meaning.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
OTR's Best Album since "Eve", March 24, 2001
Over The Rhine (these days the husband-wife team of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, with assorted studio guests) has been around since 1992, but "Films for Radio", their first album of new material since the 1996 (independent) release of "Good Dog Bad Dog" (re-released in 2000 with extra tracks) is an attempt to re-connect with the mainstream folk/rock, and almost accomplishes that. This album thankfully abandons the "I can hear a pin drop on the floor" intimate sound of recent albums. There are 4 key tracks of "Films for Radio": the opening track "The World Can Wait", which features a heavy drum beat and some of the band's best lyrics ever ("So fade to black and white now/Roll the movie of my life inside my head"). Then there is "Give Me Strength", the Dido-penned remake that is the most radio-friendly track on the album, with Karin's vocals soaring; it reminds me of recent Tori Amos. Then there is the fabulous "The Body Is a Stairway of Skin", a jazzy, sensual, if not erotic track based on loops and scratches, just beautiful! The album's closer is "When I Go", with Karen on an intimate accoustic guitar, eventually soaring with a wicked electric guitar solo, very very nice! This is clearly OTR's best album since "Eve". The question remains whether it will find a mainstream audience. I have my doubts, quite frankly. But it is a refreshing album for all the OTR fans out there (and you know who you are!). Finally, if you can catch them on their current tour (the opening of which I saw last night), go! Run! It is a fabulous evening! They play most of the "Films for Radio" tracks, and dig up some great nuggets from the past.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Over the Rhine's best major release, May 10, 2001
I am truly amazed at the shallowness of the Amazon review who calls Films for Radio "shallow." Citing neither "shallow" lyrics nor describing the sonics of a single song, void of even the most rudimentary demonstration that he has spent more than 30 seconds skipping through the tracks of this record, his review reverts to the most hackneyed of all complaints against a lot of innovative music: "it is an aural smorgasboard" that, presumably, won't sound like any single genre of music is supposed to sound. I can hear the exasperation of the music industry's corporate lackeys right now: "Good grief, in what section of the record store will we display it? What radio station in our media conglomerate will play it?" The reality I conjecture: too subtle and complex are Over the Rhine's influences, ideas, and the available comparisons to fit the reviewer's word processor-stored phrase macros. God forbid, for this review, original analysis and writing is required! But I forget, [the reviewers strategy is to] put the album into social and historical place with such gems of cultural insight as "vacous music" which "mirror(s) the emptiness of modern life." Move over T.S. Eliot, in the 21st century Amazon music critic ... has his pulse on the Zeitgeist, and guess what? Modern civilization is empty! And so is Over the Rhine! Give me a break. Over the Rhine has just released the best album I expect to hear all year. The fact that I am at a loss of words to describe its beauty and richness is the best compliment my brain can give it.
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