While the release of a double album always marks a special achievement in any band's career, it also needs to be understood that some special achievements are more impressive than others. As a case in point, one listen to Meet Me At The Edge Of The World (Over The Rhine's twelfth twelfth studio album since forming in 1991, and second double album after 2003's Ohio) reveals its quality quickly and without question. Spread over two discs (one intended to represent day, with night on the other), the set offers a captivating and intimate brand of Americana folk which is attempted by many but realized beautifully and without parallel here.
The magic that Over The Rhine spins on this new album starts the moment that its title track opens disc one (the disc is called Sacred Ground) and a haunting/heartwarming vocal seeps out to capture the hearts and minds of those who hear it effortlessly. The slow country strains (a little like the sort that Richard and Linda Thompson wrote for I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight) begin gently gently and methodically, soothing nerves and relaxing souls with warm acoustic guitars and keyboards only just lightly coloring the landscape behind the voices of Karen Bergquist and Linford Detweiler – not overly decorating it. In that way, an image of intimacy gels together – as if these two voices are the only ones in their world – and listeners will want to inhabit it because it's just so welcoming; it's a perfect way to start because it offers a wide entry point.
From the gateway left open by “Meet Me At The Edge Of The World,” Over The Rhine wastes no time in expanding the figurative landscape of the album. There is more warmth and heart to be found in the aptly-entitled “Called Home,” but also a fantastic chill that flows through “Sacred Ground” (check out that “A burning light for a wedding gown” line and images of weeping cottonwood trees) and other sensations which all fall in between (the festive vibes in “I'm Gonna Let My Soul Catch My Body” feel like a block party in Georgia, but they're tempered by the more reflective “All Of It Was Music”) fill out the experience perfectly.
Put together, Sacred Ground really does play like a complete experience unto itself, but it's only upon listening to the second disc that listeners realize there could be so much more than what they've already absorbed.
Just as it was at the beginning of disc one, disc two of Meet Me At The Edge Of The World (sub-titled Blue Jean Sky) will cause listeners to sit up and take notice in surprise as the singers trade positions to allow Detweiler to take the lead (with a much more masculine timbre in his voice than before, it's worth pointing out) and totally reshape the viewpoint from where the music springs. Now not so intrinsically happy or sunny feeling, there's a sort of late night loneliness to the underlying sound from which these songs spring and that totally reshapes the emotional center of the songs, rather than just allowing disc two to play like an extended denouement. Bergquist and Detweiler trade off on lead vocal duties more regularly on this second disc, and that interplay makes the results feel like a more concerted effort; songs like the very balladesque “It Makes No Difference,” the future alt-country staple “Against The Grain,” the shockingly compelling instrumental “Cuyahoga” and the sexy/playful “Baby If This Is Nowhere” all showcase dynamics which (more so than seemed to be the case on disc one) feel like they're the sort which need to have two personalities present to play off of and relieve each other. That give-and-take leads listeners to feel like disc two is more obviously a nighttime affair too; both personalities are serving each other in a beautiful embrace, and the points where their sensibilities converge are those which present the songs.
As dark and intimate as Blue Jean Sky allows itself to delve, the disc definitely ends on an uplifting note with “Favorite Time Of Light.” There, the singers present themselves as lovers to the end (the first words in the song, “Leave the dishes in the sink, don't over-think it. Close that broken-hearted piano” set a perfect, and perfectly affecting, tone) with a gentle, acoustic guitar offering some sympathetic support throughout. It's a perfect end to what was a very affecting journey, and listeners won't be able to escape the sweetness of the farewell. Not that they'd want to; it's likely that listeners will already be planning a return trip before the album even ends.
Alright, so let's take stock. While there's no questioning the quality of both discs in Meet Me At The Edge Of The World and no doubt that they all could stand ably on their own, there's also no question that they play even better together than they would separately. Combined, they present a portrait of intimacy as two lovers do; one completes the other and improves an already excellent experience. It's beautiful, unique and captivating, and it's unlikely that even repeatedly will take any of that shine off it.
Artist:
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Download:
Over The Rhine – Five Good Reasons To Meet Me – [EP]
Album:
Meet Me At The Edge Of The World is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
