From the bombastic, gorgeous opening cut "Mystery and Misery" to its funereal closing track, "Long Knives Drawn" is comprised of nine incendiary performances that hardly pause for breath. While so many of their contemporaries have turned in limpid, mid-tempo third or fourth efforts as they find themselves playing to a broader audience, Rainer Maria have taken the opposite tack, delivering a fearless and ferocious rock album.

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After postponing this record for three months to continue revision, Rainer Maria emerge clutching the masterwork of the postpunk literati: "A Better Version of Me." Singer Caithlin De Marrais sounds positively remade. Viscerally affecting, but not eviscerated -- listen to "Hell and High Water." Check the high notes on "Thought I Was." Her bass playing is adroit and smooth, and on tracks like "Atropine," triplets well up from the bottom octave. Guitarist Kyle Fischer has torn apart and tweaked out every pie...   [ read more ]

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Rainer Maria's Ears Ring is a three-song EP, recorded in the same sessions as their upcoming fourth album. You'd imagine a voice this big couldn't fit inside a person or on a record. You'd think drumming this combustible would be illegal to ship across state lines. You'd assume guitar playing this elastic would snap, and the loose end of it might put your eye out. This is rock music at its most dangerous at a time when it could once again be effective. Simply put, a burst of glory and fury like finding lov...   [ read more ]

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