O [Digipak] - Damien Rice > Reviews > THE STORY OF 'O'.

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	A stunning first album and  Every track is beautiful .
Disadvantages:	Very sad .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

- DAMIEN RICE O -

Singer/Songwriter Damien Rice strolled quietly onto the music scene back in 2003, with the hauntingly beautiful album 'O', and before too long he had made a big noise in the music industry. Irish born Rice had previously left the rock band Juniper to pursue a solo career. Juniper had already released two singles and was well on their way to putting out their first album with Polygram. But Damien was disenchanted with the label and left the band behind in 1999 in search of pastures new. Rice left the Emerald Isle and busked around Europe gathering musicians to fit in with his new direction in music, in the form of cellist Vyvienne Long, Tomo on drums, Shane Fitzsimmons on Bass, and remarkable singer Lisa Hannigan, with everything in place, he returned to his homeland to resume his career.

Damien Rice is basically an Irish folk singer with a troubadour style. I had first heard one of his tracks playing on the radio and I was totally enthralled at the music he was making. His Lyrics were pure and his melodies haunting, and I was swept away with the emotions his music evoked within me.-

Some singers have it; it's a lilt in their voice that can draw the emotions out, and on first listening to 'The Blowers Daughter' by Damien Rice, that is exactly what happened. The rawness of emotions that came through in his vocals was completely disarming, and provoked great empathy, and such is the effect that Damien Rice has upon me. Rice's debut album 'O' was two years in the making and it was virtually home produced from his bedroom in County Kildare, Ireland as Rice didn't like the commercial feel of most music that was being produced. He wanted honest, simplistic heartfelt emotion to be openly displayed without any artificial or polished sound to the music.

The album is a personal insight into the 'heart laid bare' emotions of a story of someone who falls in love, loses his lover, and becomes distraught by the loss of his one 'great love'. The album basically has one underlying story and each of the twelve songs is a piece to the whole part. The first six tracks tell of the wooing and falling in love, leading to the break up and coping with the loss, covered in the last six tracks. They are all chapters in the story, if you like; Rice's style is pure poet/storyteller as he opens his heart and mind and lets us eavesdrop on the love affair, and then the heartbreak contained in later tracks. Damien Rice was one of the standout artists of 2003. When 'O' was first released it quickly broke the top ten, and achieved triple-platinum status. -

The 'O' album opens with the track 'Delicate', which like its name is a gentle opener, laid back and dreamy, accompanied by the gentle strumming of acoustic guitar. Delicate reaches the chorus and the strength of the cello builds in beautifully and is accompanied by the deep strums of the bass with the acoustic guitar surging to a strong flourish, and all instruments are at one and create a stunning and beautiful blend to this gentle song of the beginnings of a love affair. I love the use of strings which compliment the plaintiff voice of rice perfectly and the sound produced tugs at the heartstrings and hits a spot deep inside you.

The third track is 'The Blowers Daughter' which Rice wrote about his flute teacher's daughter. It tells of unashamed romantic love, poignant, stunning and heartfelt. 'The Blowers Daughter' featured in the film 'Closer', and is one of the most beautiful songs I have heard. The song opens "and so it is" and as soon as I hear those four words and the way that Rice sings it with the slight break in his voice, something happens. This song has such power to break down barriers and cut straight to the chase, truly stunning and openly raw the track opens to acoustic guitar and drums, then the swelling of the cello steals in, and wraps you in sheer gut wrenching emotion, with the ethereal beauty of the vocals of Lisa Hannigan hanging on the breeze. With this song there is such a feeling of intimacy as if you are intruding upon a very private moment that Rice is allowing us to share.

Track four is Cannonball which is a great track. With beautiful and poignant lyrics which are quietly sung with a lyrical simplicity along to acoustic guitar accompaniment. He sings here about the uncertainty of new love, of being shy and careful not to scare the woman away by being too forward.

'Older Chests' follows on as track five and it starts out softly spoken with rice on guitar. This tracks lyrics are rich in metaphor and beautifully complimented by violin and cello. This follows next by 'Amie' a lovely song with stunning lyrics, Rice's vocals on here are more powerful as he almost shouts his way through this one with huge emotion and anger in his voice. There is a tremendous blend of strings here with the mournful cello solo and violin surging with the peak of emotion, until the song rests at a very abrupt ending.

'Cold Water' is an angst ridden track with Rice sadly questioning what went wrong, and as he does in his second album '9', he lets Lisa Hannigan answer his question for the second half of the track. Her voice takes over where his voice leaves off and both voices are almost one. She has an amazing quality in her voice of pure angel perfectly blending with the cello and guitar.

The penultimate track is 'I remember' which starts off with Lisa Hannigan gently singing of how she remembers him with love and affection with the slow guitar work of Rice accompanying her, Rice then takes over and the rhythm completely changes with sharp guitar riffs as he shouts and screams how he remembers her with rage as the music warps and bends and explodes in a complete cacophony of noise as it fills our ears depicting his anger at her leaving, whilst she has quietly sung how she remembers him with love and no remorse.

The final track is Eskimo, this really is a truly amazing song. Rice sings of being down and exposed, and his Eskimo friends lift him to another world, a pure fantasy song with superb strings, the violins and cello rise to an amazing crescendo and are then joined by a Finnish opera singer and the melody soars and rises leaving you breathless with its sheer perfection and it is a fitting conclusion to a truly unique album. The album also contains two hidden tracks to seemingly put Eskimo running at sixteen minutes long.- Rice produced the album at home with equipment that was given to him by film composer David Arnold, whose guest production on the track 'Amie' gave the song its massive musical presence.

Damien Rice has been compared to the likes of David Gray and Leonard Cohen, but I don't think you can put him in a box. He has re-invented the folk genre and is a unique talent and one that I don't personally think you can pigeon hole into any particular given genre. He is a singular and rare talent. He sings with an immense passion and dedication to his craft. Damien Rice is a serious musician with a real gift for poetical lyricism. Track after track each one out does the other. I have never known an album where each track was stunning, on 'O' they all are, making it a perfect album.

'O' is a tremendous album that was two years in the making and one which was a labour of love for Damien Rice. With only two albums under his belt 'O' and '9' both being rare gems, Damien Rice stands out as a shining light in the generic and mass produced styles of mainstream music available today.-

Thank you for reading
Electra 2008*