the_river raze it's always felt to me like two different albums were torn up and stitched back together out of sequence, and this is the body of water they made. there's the rowdy heartland rock that never really dug its nails into me, outside of one or two things that left a few scratch marks on my chest. then you've got that clutch of sad-eyed slow songs. the desperation and defeat of "point blank", "stolen car", "independence day", "fade away", the title track, and all the naked need and devotion in "drive_all_night". that's where you can feel the pulse of the thing thrum through your fingers. "wreck on the highway" reads like a dress rehearsal for what was right around the corner with "nebraska". those closing moments never fail to move me. there's a whole world of wordless beauty in that waning two-chord coda. 241204 what's it to you? who go blather from