O - Damien Rice > Reviews > Moving & Full of Emotion

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	A passionate and inspiring album with amazing lyrics
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

In early 2002, Damien Rice released his debut solo album, "O" in Ireland. This album contained the single "The Blower's Daughter" which, when released in 2001, won the Hot Press single of the fortnight and the Evening Herald's single of the week. Since then, Damien Rice has been very successful and achieved much more
than at first he could possibly dream.

Background
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Damien Rice is a singer/songwriter from County Kildare in Ireland. Before he started on his solo projects, Damien was in a band called "Juniper", who released the single "Weatherman", but never got round to releasing an album. Damien left the band and the rest of the members now make up the band "Bell X1".

In March 1999, Damien moved to Tuscany, he then travelled around Europe where he started to busk the streets. He arrived back to Dublin a year later and decided to record some of his songs. With no job, Damien borrowed some money from people who would lend it and put together a short demo. With this, he won producer and
film composer David Arnold's support, which provided Damien with enough money to buy his own mobile recording studio.

Musicians
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Damien got to work on his album, together with some other musicians. Tom Osander (former member of the band "God Street Wine") joined Damien as his drummer, percussionist, and backing vocalist, Vyvienne Long agreed to play strings along with piano and occasional backing vocals, and Shane Fitzsimons joined the group
playing bass guitar. Damien also found a second vocalist and electric guitarist, who gained much success after the release of the album, Lisa Hannigan.

Recording
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By 2001, the his group put together many ideas, and Damien had written enough songs over the years for perhaps even four albums, so he decided that he wanted only ten songs to be recorded. This was a hard choice as Damien had written so many songs, but in the end he and his group decided on what they thought were the ten best songs that they could come up with. They even managed to squeeze in two hidden tracks at the end of the album.

Tracklist
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The album begins with a song called "Delicate". It begins with just Damien's acoustic guitar playing a calm, relaxed melody, after which the drums and vocals kick in. The music the pauses for a while after which the whole group (apart from Lisa Hannigan) come in. The strings add in a new layer to the music, and eventually Damien sings with a loud passionate voice which inspires the listener
to hear the next track, which is called "Volcano".

This is slightly more upbeat than the previous song with a somewhat jazzy, syncopated feel to it. Vyvienne plays the main melody at the beginning on cello and this is the first track that Lisa Hannigan sings on. It's a well-structured song, beginning with a verse by Damien unaccompanied, a chorus with both singers, then a verse with Lisa on her own. By the end of the song, both vocalists sing their own parts and Damien is double tracked and the voices are mixed in all over the place.

The next acoustic song, "The Blower's Daughter" is arguably the favourite of the album. Damien wrote this song about his wind instrument teacher's daughter, hence the title. It begins with just acoustic guitar and vocals, and when the verse comes in a violin plays a counter melody to Damien's repeated lyrics "I can't take my eyes off you" which was described as "The most romantic thing said
in music this year" by a reviewer at Amazon.co.uk. At first, it is hard for the listener to decide weather this song is a happy love song, or a sad song about the love Damien never had from this "Blower's Daughter". Lisa Hannigan sings a verse as this character and it's clear that this is a song about a relationship that has ended: the lyrics say "Did I say that I loath you? Did I say that I want to leave it all behind?" This also shows that these two people didn't want this relationship to end, but it has. The emotion that has been put into this song and Damien's voice particularly in the line "The pupil in denial" makes this song sound amazing to listen to.

The fourth song, "Cannonball" is also considered one of Damien's best songs. This is completely solo, as Damien plays only acoustic guitar and sings, nothing else is used. It has a very interesting guitar melody, over chords previously recorded. This is a song with a happy melody, yet darker lyrics ("It's not hard to fall, when you float like a Cannonball"). The end of this song turns into an
instrumental, which is only between Damien's guitar melodies and the chords he had recorded before. This is quite an achievement, as instrumentals between just two acoustic guitars wouldn't quite seem to work, but somehow Damien Rice has made this work in Cannonball".

"Older Chests" is the name of the next song, which although features every member of the band apart from Tom, sounds quite like Cannonball in the sense that it's a completely solo song. It doesn't sound bare, but also doesn't sound as layered as "Volcano" for example. It sounds sad, but the lyrics suggest a hint of hope ("Pass my by, I'll be fine") which makes this song stand out in the
album. At the end of the track there's a recording of what sounds like children running about and playing. This paint's a picture in the listener's mind and we can almost imagine Damien walking past a school playground with the thoughts in his head being the lyrics of the song.

Track number six is called "Amie", and is another nice relaxed song, with lyrics, again, more like "The Blower's Daughter". It starts out very simple with just an acoustic guitar and vocals, but towards the end of the song there is an epic score written for strings by David Arnold. This adds a whole new flavour to the entire album, and alongside the lyrics "Read me the story of 'O'", makes this song shine out a little brighter than others.

A tipsy sounding "Cheers Darlin'" is next up and yes, Damien was in fact drunk when he wrote this. It starts off with a clarinet and the voices of people in a pub together with the distant clinking together of glasses. When Damien's vocals come in we are surprised because he sounds like he had had far too much to drink whilst recording the song. The song is based on Damien's real experience of going to a pub, spotting a woman, talking to her, and finding out that she has a husband. The clinking of glasses turns into a percussion instrument the whole way through, and the compound time signature gives off the impression of feeling a little woozy. Damien believes that this woman could have made a choice between him and her husband, we can tell this by the lyrics "what am I darlin', the boy you can fear, or your biggest mistake?" The very end of this song is solo piano which runs into the next song, "Cold Water".

"Cold Water" starts with an echo effect on a grand piano, already giving off a very sad melody. The acoustic guitar creeps in almost unnoticed and Damien finally comes in with the lyrics "Cold water surrounds me now". Damien sounds as if he's lost, or scared, his voice contains no trace of hope or happiness. It's as if the only thing he can trust in is God ("Lord, can you hear me now?"). After Damien's desperate call, Lisa comes in with almost the same lyrics as Damien sang, after which, a group of Gregorian chanters sing a verse, playing their part as the voice of God, giving Damien and Lisa hope again. After the chanters have quietened down, Damien comes back in with strong vocals and it's like waking up from a deep trance, we are awoken and we realise that Damien hasn't been singing for a few minutes. At the end, a violin melody is played and Damien and Lisa's voices sound desperate again, they die down and the Gregorian chanters come in once again, making up a happy sounding chord with their voices to end the song.

The next song "I Remember" is a very cleverly structured one. This song starts very slowly with a very happy mood. Damien's guitar plays quiet happy notes and Lisa is the only voice we hear as she sings about when she first met her partner and the love they now share. There are no two moods to this part of the song; it is very straightforwardly happy especially with the lyrics "Nothing is taking me down". However, at the end of this section, Lisa adds to these words "Except you my love", which makes us think twice about her relationship with this person. But just when we start to think again, Lisa's voice trails off, we think the song has ended but the guitar is playing a more dangerous sounding melody, slightly creepy, and Damien's quiet voice is the one we hear next: "Come all ye lost, dive into moss and hope that my sanity covers the cost to remove the stain of my love in paper maché". After this Damien's voice picks up and he sings with a very loud and angry voice, the whole band kicks in and the full drum kit is heard for the first time since "Volcano", but this time it is playing a very heavy, emotional and angry sounding rhythm. This tells us that Damien's side of the relationship is not happy, and the instrumental at the end sounds frightening, showing the anger of Damien.

The final song on the debut album is titled "Eskimo". It's hard to tell what this one is really about, although we can tell it is a happy song which is partly about a friend that Damien can look to when he needs help ("I look to my Eskimo friend when I'm down"). This "Eskimo friend" may be a real person who Damien somehow sees as an Eskimo, or it's an imaginary person. An opera singer Doreen Curran is featured towards the end of this song, singing in Finnish she says "kosketa minua, älä käsilläsi, vaan niin että tunnen sinut" which in English means "Touch me, not with your hands, but the way I can feel you" then "kosketa minua, älä käsilläsi, mutta sielussasi" which means "Touch me, not with your hands, but within your soul" and finally "minä kaipaan eskimo-ystävääni" which means "I look to my Eskimo friend". The song ends with Damien once again singing "When I'm down, down, down".

There are also two hidden tracks at the end of the album: "Prague" and "Silent Night". "Prague" is like a slower version of the second section of "I Remember", and "Silent Night" is the Christmas carol, but with only Lisa Hannigan's voice alone, and also, the words have been changed to an eerier version of the carol.

Reception
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The album gained much success after its release in 2002. Damien and his group received many awards, including best debut album, most outstanding male artist, most outstanding female artist (Lisa Hannigan) and best live performance all at the Claus awards in December. They recorded a song for an up and coming Irish film called "Goldfish Memory" and in August, O had went platinum in Ireland for reaching sales exceeding 15000. Damien has also had much success in supporting big bands such as Coldplay and Counting Crows in Scotland. In 2004 he was nominated for a Brit award for best solo artist alongside Justin Timberlake, Ryan Adams, pink, and Har Mar Superstar, and he was also nominated for best international male, alongside 50 Cent, Beck, Justin Timberlake, and Seán Paul.

Appearance
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The CD case is made out of a sort of cardboard material. This appears to only be because it is cheap and easy to produce. The CD sits snugly in the inside pocket of the case alongside the sleeve.

The artwork is very nice looking. It's a sort of brown background with an almost stick drawing of a mand and a woman, with an arrow pointing to each saying "Me" and "You"

Price
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Price will most likely vary in most places but the general price is around £5 now. Very cheap.

Overall
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Damien Rice's "O" is absolutley brilliant. It's a moving, thought-provoking album, the follow up is at the same level, and I know we can expect more of the same in the future.