Customer Reviews

O

5 star:		(264)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This CD made it's way into my hands when a friend, an Irish singer, said if he could be anyone in the world, he would be Damien Rice. He put this album on and watched eagerly as I devoured it for the first time. Inevitable comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, Dave Matthews and Tom Waits will be made, but Rice is a genre unto himself.

Rice's voice is beautiful, and in it's human imperfection, convey's a world of deep emotion. The vocal style can change from song to song, but his ability to sing straight to your soul is always there. The lyrics are deep and they burn.

'Cold Water' made me weep, I was so caught up. The Gregorian chant at the end was a perfect emotional denouement. 'I Remember' hurt, it was so good.

Lisa Hannigan's vocals are woven together with Rice's in a perfect compliment. Her voice begins where his ends.

Cellist Vyvienne Long adds a deep, grounding tone that is haunting.

The acoustic guitar arrangement went from spartan to a wall of sound. The organic feel augmented the feel of the whole album.

As my friend watched me listen for the first time, I knew I had a problem on my hands.

What could I possibly do to return this favor?

When I look back in a few year's time at the music that most impressed me in 2004, the name Damien Rice will jump out at me like a sore thumb. After spending the past year pretty much oblivious to this new singer, I finally came around to his overwhelming appeal and popularity as his debut album began climbing the UK album charts. With little promotion apart from a simple advert on TV, Damien Rice has gone from being a little-known singer to an internationally-acclaimed star and the one to watch over the next year or so. I was in London last weekend (to see Madonna in concert!) and went shopping, and ended up buying Rice's debut album "O." I listened to it all the way home on the coach and completely fell in love with it.

Released in the summer of 2003, O came along and made a minor impact in the charts despite strong reviews. However, from simple word-of-mouth, the album has gone on to become one of the year's success stories. The sound of the album is basically a good-looking Irish man with a guitar singing songs of extreme melancholy but with immense passion and dedication. His style is distinctive and fresh in an industry flooded with watered-down pop and R'n'B radio-fodder, and from the first song I heard on this album I was hooked. Damien Rice, ladies and gentlemen, is the saviour of the modern music industry.

O opens with the fantastic slow song "Delicate." With just a guitar, cello and bass Mr. Rice crafts a beautiful and melancholy song that is particularly special to me. The first time I heard it I was remembering the day before when I met someone at the Madonna concert who had a big impact on me, and I couldn't help feeling an immense sadness and regret for not asking for his e-mail address or telephone number to stay in touch. This song perfectly captures those emotions for me, and for many others I am sure it will too. "Volcano" is a gorgeous and catchy mid-tempo number with a remarkable bass and various percussion instruments, accompanied by gorgeous female vocals. "The Blower's Daughter" is next and is a particular stand out for me. Rice sings with such passionate yearning. When his voice cracks over the bass and the gentle guitar, you feel everything he is feeling, and then he repeats "I can't take my eyes off of you" over and over to capture your imagination. The best part of the song, however, comes after the third minute when the female voice comes in again, and it is *absolutely beautiful* - I swear down it will make your heart flutter and you'll sit there in amazement as she sings "Did I say that I loathe you?"

The album's most popular song comes next in the shape of "Cannonball." With an instantly recognisable melody, Rice's beautiful vocals and soft guitar-playing warms your heart as you find yourself in familiar territory. ""Older Chests" is one of my favourite songs on the album, because of the images it paints in your mind. Damien is once again accompanied by beautiful female vocals towards the end of the song as he sings, "Time, always time, on my mind. Pass me by, I'll be fine, just give me time." The next song is the beautiful "Amie." With a gorgeous cello that sounds like a revealing sunrise at dawn and a breathtaking string section to close the song, this is one song that you won't forget in a hurry. Absolutely masterful. "Cheers Darlin'" is a unique song because Rice reveals his humorous personality as he sings drunkenly about his ex-girlfriend and her new lover boy! The gentle clinking of glasses represent the drunk-effect, and the gentle saxophone brings about the melancholy sadness of loss.

"Cold Water" is another highlight of the album for me. It opens beautiful with a sound that is like echoes amongst a chilly pond, the gentle tears of winter rain gracefully skimming the surface. Rice opens the song with "Cold, cold water!" in a feeble and reclusive voice that is filled with emotion. Just when things get too much for him, Lisa Hannigan's beautiful voice arrives to support him. Then, the gorgeous and gentle hum of Gregorian chants mingle with Hannigan's vocals and swirl the song around your brain. "I Remember" is a really remarkable song, but not really one of my favourites. Infact, it's the only song that I don't enjoy on the album. A female voice opens the album and carries on for a few minutes before Rice comes in and screeches his vocals like a man possessed as he battles his inner demons. The song closes with the fantastic "Eskimo." The words to describe this song are cute, epic and revealing. Cute because of Damien's voice and the words "So I look to my Eskimo friend!" and epic because of the grand Opera-vocals that come in towards the end from Doreen Curran. Why revealing though? Just the music is a true revelation that can mean a number of things to the listener. A symbol of strength in dark times, a glimmer of hope in depression - anything.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

The song also has two bonus songs tagged on the end of the album, but they are both a continuation of track 10 which makes Eskimo appear to be 16 minutes in length when it really isn't. This is by far the most beautiful and relaxing album that I have come across since Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" and Bjork's "Vespertine." I have never come across a male vocalist so passionate and dedicated whilst displaying so much emotion. He doesn't overdo it though, because in the case of Mr. Rice, excess is never a problem. I look forward to hearing much more from him the future. There are no options. You simply must buy this album.

Although I knew "The Blower's Daughter" from the film CLOSER and "Delicate" from LOST, Damien Rice has until recently been unexplored territory for me. What I didn't know is that his album O is not a disc with only one or two great songs, but one of the most from-beginning-to-end brilliant albums of recent years. Vocally Rice reminds me of a lot of other performers. Jeff Buckley and Ryan Adams spring to mind, there is even something of the very young Leonard Cohen in the songs. But this album is more consistently brilliant than anything released by those singers. He isn't quite the singer that Jeff Buckley was (but then who is?), but he is a much better songwriter. His songwriting reminds me somewhat of Hayden, but it is much more dramatic, lush, and expressive and his singing is in an entirely different league. There is also a soft serenity to the music that is nearly as gently calming as the best of Iron and Wine. Actually, Rice and Iron and Wine's Sam Beam write songs that evoke many of the same feelings, though Rice is a far stronger vocalist (though it has to be granted that Beam is perhaps unrivalled as a lyricist today--I think you have to go to people like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to find a demonstrably better lyricist than Sam Beam).

Any album is going to have some blend of stronger and weaker songs, but here the mix is really between exceptionally gorgeous and merely gorgeous songs. Far too often you have a strong album, but one or two cuts blow all the others out of the water. But here you get the almost painfully beautiful "The Blower's Daughter" sandwiched between "Volcano" and "Cannonball." And "Volcano" is preceded by "Delicate." So, the album basically starts off with four amazingly great songs, almost any of which would normally have the potential to become a minor classic. But here is the shocker: the rest of the album is nearly as good and at times better. "Older Chests," "Amie," and "Cheers Darlin'" is as strong a trio as the three songs I mentioned above. And then the album ends on "I Remember" and "Eskimo." This is just a ludicrous amount of great music. This album is indeed an embarrassment of riches. It isn't enough to say that there are no weak cuts on the album: there are only a couple of songs that can't be described as almost impossibly beautiful.

This is one of the most intimate albums I've ever heard. Continuing the reference to Sam Beam, the only albums I know of that has more of an intimate feel than this one are Iron and Wine's THE CREEK DRANK THE CRADLE and OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS. If on those albums it sounds as if Beam was sitting directly behind you and whispering into your ear, on O Damien Rice sounds like he is sitting two feet in front of you and singing directly to you. The arrangements are in keeping with this. Often a song is performed with only Rice's guitar and a few minimal embellishments by back up vocalists or percussionists (never drums as such), or a firmly restrained string section. Most of the guitar work is acoustic, but even when an electric guitar is used it is so delicate that you hardly notice it. Although the arrangements could be described as minimalist, the album nonetheless has an incredibly dramatic, almost operatic feel to it. This truly is a masterpiece of the first rank.

Is Damien Rice a genius? I don't know. One album does not a genius make, even one so grand as this. But if Rice releases a second album as fine as this, I'm willing to so nominate him. I have absolutely no idea why I have only now discovered this gem. I'm pushing it off on all my friends now, regardless of their taste. I suppose there are people who won't like this, but I wonder about their capacity to enjoy good music if they don't. I listen to a ton of music, but this is definitely going to go down as one of the best albums I have discovered this year, no matter how good the albums I discover the rest of the year.

This guy is soon to be a household name. It's incredible that this record is just getting a U.S. release, having been out in Ireland for over a year. Damien Rice picks up where Jeff Buckley left off, and reminds us what great songwriting is all about. Haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking and hilarious, all at the same time. Enough said. Get this record and go see this guy play live. You will be blown away.

I have had this CD for a while, but I didn't write a review simply because I really couldn't find the right words to describe it.

I was so strongly taken in by Damien's' music that I literally sat still doing absolutely nothing for the entire length of the CD, including the stray songs way after the initial songs were over.
When I play this CD it is like Damien is right in my living room, just playing and hanging out. It is that intimate.

Damien's voice is, in a word, captivating! Once his voice has hold of you, along comes the angelic whispers of Lisa Hannigan; now there is no escape. Most of the instruments were played by Damien as well as the art work, proving that he is multitalented, not just one of many "singer/songwriters" out today.

It seems the genre is getting flooded much like what happened to the "Seattle scene." Hopefully not destroying it like grunge was killed by commercialism.

Damien has taken up the cross left behind by Jeff Buckely.

Favorite songs are:

delicate
Volcano
the blower's daughter
cannonball
older chests
cheers darlin'
i remember

But make no mistake, there is not one bad track on here.

a true rival for best of 2003

This is one of the best and most original cds I have ever heard, one of those rare albums that can bring tears to your eyes and chills to your spine. I can't compare this music to anyone else's. The use of classical and opera, the melodies, and the incredible voices of Damien, and of Lisa Hannigan who joins him on several tracks. It's not often music can be described as beautiful. This is. Do yourself a favor and buy this album.

Damien Rice demonstrates such a range of voices and styles that to put him in a single category would invariably leave something out. Rice relies on the power of understatement to convey strong emotion (often heartbreak). "Delicate," "The Blower's Daughter," "Cannonball," and "Cold Water" are perfect examples of deceptively simple, but never ordinary, lyrics and acoustic instrumentation. "Older Chests" would almost fall into this group as well, except the subtlety is lost and the song becomes too melodramatic. However, this is an exception.

"Volcano" and "Cheers Darlin'" have a moody, slightly jazzy feel; "I Remember" evolves into a harder, rock feel; "Amie" and "Eskimo" use sweeping, orchestral instrumentation (even a bit of Finnish opera in Eskimo.) By the way, "Eskimo" is not actually a 16-minute song; two extra songs are added onto this track, with a few minutes of dead space in between. These two songs, an untitled I'll call "All Dressed Up For" and "Silent Night", would be better split into separate tracks, but that's a minor flaw.

There really aren't any songs in O that I don't enjoy, but if I had to pick, my favorites would be "The Blower's Daughter," "Delicate" and "Amie," which all best demonstrate Rice's lyric tenderness and emotionally expansive voice. This album has immediately become one of my favorites, and is worth every minute of listening.

Unlike some contributors, I don't believe Damien changes the world, or walks on water, or has the cure for cancer in his back pocket, but - and it's a big, emphatic, joyous 'but' - I've listened to this CD more than any other over the past 12 months and every time I listen, I'm not just impressed but, you know, moved. I was on holiday, listening on my Walkman, lying by the pool, and one harmony between Damien and Lisa - the bit where they both sing 'time, always time' on Older Chests - rather unexpectedly, even after about 50 listens, literally stirred every cell in my body. The whole album is quietly, evocatively, insidiously magical and wondrous. I'm Irish, and in a sense that usually turns me against, rather than onto, local heroes (small countries tend to overhype modest talents) but Damien transcends all that. His music connects immediately, seduces effortlessly and, at a primeval level, just makes me want to exult in the joys, and pitfalls, of everday life. It's not usually my type of music, but it has become an essential, almost daily, listen. It's languidly beautiful, achingly emotional, endlessly rewarding - take a tip, buy it.

I picked this up on a whim, and whoa, was I ever blown away! If I could ever make a cd with my feelings perfectly illustrated in music this would be it. Aside from ruining my rock career, this cd dashes all of those in my collection! Rarely are lyrics so beautifully woven into an actual... meaning. There is more emotional truth and beauty in this album than any I have, or maybe even will hear. The pure longing and soft tear in Rice's voice is enough to make you reconsider what music is about. I'm a rock guy, but regardless of the style this music grabs, and shakes- like a good play it wrenches your emotional core, it did mine anyway. After I bought it I was floored, nailed to my seat in a Green Room, and I literally could not move I was so touched, almost changed by the music. It's not even the words, really as it is the intent: the truth in meaning, the moaning, the scratching that makes you say, DAMN! Love is hard, and if you've ever felt it you'll feel this. Pick this up, even if you don't like "soft music." If you're open minded enough to listen, this'll make you weap!- And I'm a tough guy! Thanks.

The unfortunate result of hype is that expectations are raised to such a fever pitch, the artist in question becomes an inevitable letdown.

This -- thank God -- is not the case w/ Damien Rice.

This is the closest thing to instant love I've felt for an album in a long time.

The Amazon review is absolutely right -- Rice's maturity is startling. He successfully rides a sophisticated line between accesible and challenging material. His work is unabashedly emotive, but always sincere. The depression is exquisite, and so is the beauty.

Absolute yum.