Damien Rice - O
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CD Details
Artist: Damien RiceEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-06-10
Music Label: Vector Recordings
Soundtracks:
- Delicate
- Volcano
- The Blower's Daughter
- Cannonball
- Older Chests
- Amie
- Cheers Darlin'
- Cold Water
- I Remember
- Eskimo
Music reviews of O
Music Review: Intoxicating in every way, a truly revolutionary effort...
Rating: 5 Stars
I remember the first time I saw the film `Closer' and hearing this beautiful and intoxicating song culling me while the beautiful Natalie Portman walked towards me as the film came to an end. I remember it so well because that song was `Blowers Daughter' and I immediately looked up this album. Damien Rice has since then become my all time favorite musical act. I've seen him perform twice now and each time leaves me wanting to hear more. I own all of his albums and even his rare and unreleased work and I just can't get enough. Everything he touches is golden, and here, on his debut album `O' he delivers his best work ever. This album is so emotional and so well rounded it's hard to think of anything that comes close to it.
What I really appreciate about the artist that is Damien Rice is that he is above everything else an artist. He's creative and raw, not glossed over and perfected. He works with what he has and does his best to infuse imagination into his work. Not one song sounds the same. He also lays his heart out with each and every cut. He puts all he has into his music. Whether he's singing about the birth and or the death of relationships or the struggle to move on with your life he is convincing because he stays true to himself.
The album starts off with the beautiful `Delicate', a song that relishes in the simple things that make relationships so special. It's the tale of new love, that lustful adoring love that blossoms from something rich and pure. He sings about how they express their love in private because to them it's a delicate beauty, something only they share and thus is not for the world around them. On `Volcano' Rice invites singer Lisa Hannigan to join him in what proves to be one of the best tracks on the album. The song seems to be about a relationship gone sour and as Damien recites towards the end that "like a new disease she's still too young to treat" it becomes apparent that the damage done is long lasting. That brings us to `Blowers Daughter', such a brilliant song and the one that brought Rice to the attention of thousands (I say thousands as apposed to millions for the reason that he is still what I consider a hidden treasure). It's a haunting almost ghostly track that easily finds its place in your skin and stays there.
`Cannonball' follows `Blowers Daughter' beautifully. `Cannonball' falls more in the vein of `Delicate' as in the fact that it speaks of the beautiful side of relationships, focusing on the feeling love can give you. The lyrics are so true. When you think about that weightless feeling inside when thinking about the one who takes your breath away we hardly ever realize the speed in which we could fall. `Older Chests' was the one track here that took me some time to get used to. It's probably my least favorite but it's still a great song, speaking of the need to grow and learn from your mistakes and how time, the one thing we need in order to accomplish that, is always slipping away.
`Amie' is without a doubt my favorite track on the album. When I saw Rice the last time he explained this track saying that Amie was a close friend of his whom he happened to fall for. He said he was having a crumby day and just needed to talk and so he went to see her, they sat around and drank and comforted each other and then he retreated to her guest bedroom and just couldn't stop thinking about her. He wrote the song that night while staring out her window. It's such a beautiful song about falling in love with the person you least expect, but having that love be the most amazing experience of your life. The arrangements for this song also carry it to a new level, with orchestral delights and otherworldly sounds.
`Cheers Darlin' is a great breakup track. Here Rice is lamenting over a lost love and the fact that she has now moved onto someone knew. In fact, she's getting married. He's drinking his pain away here, as is made obvious by the sounds of clinking glasses and drinks being poured. `Cold Water' is another track that perfectly captures atmosphere. It's one of those moving songs that when really analyzed can take your breath away. As Rice sings the first verse in a raspy, breathless voice he sounds as if he drowning and that adds so many layers to the track, and when Lisa chimes in its just breathtaking. `I Remember' is supposedly about the worst person imaginable, about the single most detestable person to you. Lisa sings the majority of the song before the track almost comes unhinged and changes direction drastically when Damien takes over. It actually feels like two completely separate songs. It's within Damien's part though that the song really comes to life as he bellows about wanting to know what this person thinks about him.
The album officially closes with `Eskimo', a brilliant adaptation of an Opera ballad complete with Operatic samples and recordings. It's a somewhat silly song upon a first listen as Rice sings about his Eskimo friend but when you really take the time to listen to it for what it is, experimental, it becomes the most evocative and imaginative track here. This is the cut that proves Rice is a musical genius to me. He takes something that not many people would consider listening to (at least not many that would listen to him...it's a different fan base) and incorporates it into his music making it accessible and enjoyable. The album doesn't technically close yet though, it still contains two bonus tracks. First we have `Prague' which is one of my favorite songs he's ever gone. The lyrics are interesting and the music is brilliant. The album finishes with Lisa singing an acappella of `Silent Night'. This really showcases her beautiful singing voice. It's a shame she no longer is a part of Damien's music, but I'm sure her solo venture will prove successful.
So, this is just the first from a musical mastermind, there is more in store for the listener. His follow up `9' is brilliant as well, while not as utterly masterful as `O', and `B-Sides' is a great addition to the collection for it showcases some great rare material as well as some demos. But `O' is surely his finest moment and it's this album that will continue to draw in fans. Listen and please do enjoy!
Description of O
Damien Rice's intriguing brand of stylishly, un-styled dirty folk music has made him one of the standout artists of 2003. O was first released in Ireland, where it quickly broke the top ten, and achieved triple-platinum status. Slim hard-back digipak. Vector. 2003.Irish troubadour Damien Rice doesn't so much reinvent the folk genre on this lush, impossibly mature debut album as push its boundaries in several compelling musical directions at once--all the more remarkable considering the album was largely self-produced and home-recorded. His songs revolve around familiar, bittersweet concerns of life, love, and their attendant frustrations, but delivered with conspiratorial intimacy on melodic wings (like on the graceful "Cannonball") that Rice seems almost embarrassed to share. If there's anything like a template here, it's "The Blower's Daughter," the song that first attracted the interest/stewardship of film composer David Arnold (whose guest production provides "Amie" with expansive cinematic elegance) and became a massive Irish hit. His plaintive vocal, embroidered by the mournful solo cello of Vyvienne Long, is suddenly brightened by an instrumental flourish and Lisa Hannigan's vocals--before just as quickly wafting on the breeze. With touches that range from "Day in the Life"-styled string collages to the dizzy, exhilarating neo-operatic excesses of the 16-minute "Eskimo," Rice's musical palate here is as adventurous as his songs are grounded in emotional intimacy. --Jerry McCulley
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