Over the Rhine's 'The Long Surrender'

Over the Rhine's new album, "The Long Surrender" (Great Speckled Dog), is aggressively beautiful, like those '60s protesters who confronted soldiers with flowers. Singer Karin Berquist and guitarist Linford Detweiler have teamed up with producer Joe Henry to build folk music that sounds stridently timeless and tells poignant stories that almost dare you not to cry. "Only God Can Save Us Now" is about life in a nursing home. "Undamped" finds Berquist and Lucinda Williams trading aching lines about the struggle to survive. Soon, it becomes useless to resist "The Long Surrender."

OVER THE RHINE

"The Long Surrender"

GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE Unflinching lyrical folk