Label: Polyvinyl Records
Released: Jan 23, 2001 |
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Do you ever feel as if a band that you've followed for a long time is going a different direction musically as you? It isn't necessarily their fault, it you too (I feel like I'm breaking up with Rainer Maria). Actually "A Better Version of Me" is a good album. Yet for me it doesn't quite compare with the slow, brooding "Worn Past Searching". I'm sure for other listeners this recent album blows away the old one. There are a lot of good songs on this album with a lot of interesting parts in them, yet a lot of the classic Rainer Maria sound is not there. The jazzy, loose drumming of William Kuehn is more rigid. The dueling male/female vocals only occur in a few songs, it is now mainly Caithlin De Marrais performing the vocal duties (which is not a bad thing). The bass line isn't as pronounced. The songs are more straight up rock, yet for me there is something missing. It is definitely worth a listen though: go to www.rainermaria.com to get small samples from each of the songs and decide for yourself; you might be pleasantly surprised.
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