Long Knives Drawn

Rainer Maria --- Long Knives Drawn


Driving punky emo. Never shy to use their literary allusions, Rainer Maria emotes about "the awful truth of loving" and "throwing away the imperatives." But surprisingly, such weighty diary-excerpt lyrics seldom seem pretentious or whiney, even to a jaded ear. A bit more fast and noisy than their first two albums - more stripped down to the bare minimums - angular and understated with a more garage-y sound. Charging drums and guitars with singer/bassist Catherine De Marrais's stunning voice piercing through the noisy jumble. In a change, guitarist Kyle Fisher doesn't sing lead at all on this album-which is probably a good thing since his indie-kid off-key vocals paled beside De Marrais's.

Best tracks: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9

1 - fast
2 - mid/fast
3 - fast great noisy guitars
4 -- mid
5 - mid
6 - mid
7 -- fast
8 -- fast
9 - slow ballad, a break-up song