The Trumpet Child

by

Over the Rhine

Edit

With the release of "The Trumpet Child", Over the Rhine has released not one, not two, not three, but FOUR albums in the past year. First there was the outstanding and long-awaited second Christmas album "Snow Angels" (independantly released in December 06), then there was "Live from Nowhere, Volume 2", a great live album also released independantly in early 07, and then there was "Discount Fireworks", the outstanding first ever career-overview, released by Back Porch also in early 07. After their record deal with Back Porch ran out in 2006, the band decided to go the independent route, and this is the first 'regular' studio to come out from that.

"The Trumpet Child" (11 tracks, 41 min.) continues the band's evolution into more jazzier sounds, even cabaret-like, as primary songwriter Linford Dettweiler writes in the liner notes. This comes out in songs like the opener "I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time", "I'm On a Roll" and the title track. Much better for me is the album's mid-section, with Karin Bergquist-penned track (and first single) "Entertaining Thoughts" and also "Let's Spend the Day In Bed", the best track of the album for me. There are a number of tracks on here that OtR has been playing in concert for a while now, including the funny "Trouble" (Karin's ode of sorts to Linford) and also the album closer "If A Song Could Be President", the most overtly political song ever from OtR, and, frankly, a turn-off for me, with silly lines like "We'll make Neil Young a Senator/Even though he's from Canada". Urr... no.

That aside, "The Trumpet Child" is a great addition to the rich Over the Rhine catalogue. Karin Bergquist's vocals sound as warm and rich as ever before. The band continues to evolve, and I've been on this ride since the early 90s. I can only hope they can keep surprising me!

An odd personal coincidence regarding the release of this album is that it comes at a time when I'm really getting back into the Smashing Pumpkins; personally, I'm a bigger fan of their later work, Adore being my favorite of their albums. What's curious is that Adore was such a departure for the Pumpkins that many of their new fans who had been so turned on by Mellon Collie were equally turned off by Adore. Bands very often take a creative turn that many fans are unwilling to take with them. Unlike the Pumpkins, however, I'm not as enthused with OtR's latest offering. Most of OtR's albums have at least one track that's something of a clue as to the direction they'll be headed next time around, and I'd say Stella's Tarantella, that jazzy little track on Drunkard's Prayer about which I am least enthusiastic, fits this description. (They've also been doing quite a few jazzy numbers in their live shows, as evidenced in Live from Nowhere volumes 1 and 2)The great majority of this album is very much in this same style: jazzy, with a little flair of cabaret thrown in for good measure. I'm certainly a jazz fan, and Karin's vocals are well suited to this musical genre, and Linford's piano work is outstanding, of course. But it's not what I've come to expect, and love, about this duo. Good Dog/Bad Dog, Ohio, and Drunkard's Prayer are absolute gems of the folk-rock genre. I fell in love with each of them from the very first listen. Like Stella's Tarantella, I simply didn't fall in love with this album at first listen. I have grown to appreciate S's T, and I'm sure I'll do the same with Trumpet Child, but I'm already looking forward to OtR's next album and hoping it will be a departure from this, well, departure.