It's often been a criticism of The Red Paintings that their live shows rely more on the bizarre performances of the band than they do on the actual music itself. There's no denying that their shows certainly are unusual, with the band wearing odd costumes, artists painting on canvases on stage while the music is playing, and all manner of fantastic imagery being splashed all over the place. While this has certainly got the band a lot of attention, it has had the unfortunate side-effect of glossing over the musical abilities of the band. Previous studio releases were murky, uneven, and difficult to get a hold of, so for many people, the actual musical ability of this band was questionable.

However, with "Rain", The Red Paintings should put any speculation that the band has to resort to eccentric live shows because of a lack of musical talent, to bed. As a teaser to their upcoming full-length album "The Revolution Is Never Coming", it's full of promise, as a stand alone batch of songs, it's even more impressive.

The title track, Rain, is a perfect indication of why this band has a bright future ahead of it. A gently cascading piano starts the song, which is eventually joined by a cello, and some rough, gravely vocals, and then finally by a distorted guitar that is loud without overwhelming the song. The effect is similar to that of a Muse song, except without all of the excessive melodrama, and with a fair bit more subtlety. Over the four-minute runtime of the song, it jumps from edgy passage to edgy passage, creating a general sense of unease, without ever undoing it.

The next track, The Cancer Song isn't quite as good, trading the constantly changing dynamics of the title track for a more straightforward rock song. Just People & Leaves is better, with a brooding acoustic guitar complementing the rapid-fire poetic lyrics of the song. The strings in this song are a perfect illustration of how they should be used in a rock setting, complementing the music rather than completely overwhelming it. A reprise of Rain finishes off the EP, the grandiose piano pieces having been stripped out in favour of some more sombre strings and acoustic guitar.

My only significant problem with this EP is that it's too short, but that's probably the effect that the band was going for, since I'm now eagerly awaiting their full-length album. Other than that, this isn't a bad record at all, very dark and refined, bringing to mind bands like The Boxing Lesson, and Vast. "Rain" is a definite nice surprise from a band with a promising future.