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Album Description: 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. Amazon.com: 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 Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-29
Damien Rice is an Innovative Troubadour
I just love this album. Damien Rice brings storytelling back to the alternative music scene. His warm and sultry voice is reminiscent of Indian singer Tanita Tikarum, only with a slightly more positive bent to the lyrics. The songs have a degree of continuity which makes whole album listening a pleasure. It is filled with unexpected and delightful interjections from female vocalists. The ample use of strings makes O both easy listening and the triumph of a contempory balladeir. Rating: 
Date: 2008-02-28
So-so
This is a fairly uneven CD--some songs are very nice, but others make you want to reach for the "skip" button. Rating:
Date: 2008-02-25
Classic
Blowers daughter, Amie, Older Chests, this album is packed with slow emotion that will never get old. Rating:
Date: 2008-02-08
on my mind
This stunning Damien Rice offering is by turns imperfect, soulish, quirky, self-absorbed, and fantastic.
Rice's persuasive voice is complemented with uncommon tact by gorgeous female accompaniment. Though it never ceases to be a Damien Rice album, Lisa Hannigan and her friends are so good that they play a solid supporting role without which Rice would not be what he is. Almost the same can be said of the understated by skillful acoustic guitar that encircles Rice's voice throughout `O''s tenspot of tracks.
One cannot escape the notion that there was some enjoying of wine as this album was perceived and executed and that it is best enjoyed beside a bottle of something red. The image, at the least, gets at the tone and substance of his artistry and the soft-ish reflection that his songs embody.
Among the album's many fine tracks, one deserves special mention: `Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' is an exquisite restatement of an old tune, masterfully accomplished in the way that remakes too often are not.
This album came to this reviewer from his son as a Christmas gift. I was unfamiliar with Damien Rice. On the strengths of this album, that will change. Rating:
Date: 2008-01-25
Supernatural
I realize I missing out on some really cool music when I heard Damian Rice for the first time live in central park. I was so impressed that I ran out to get his music-all that I could find. His voice is beautiful, the phrasing spot on and with this album even more so. Few performers can express life's pain and pleasures in such a nuanced manner and allow the passion and emotion shine through. It's a style I've come to associate with great Irish performers and it doesn't get much better than this. Most of us have experienced unrequited love, obsessively continued a doomed relationship or get thrown by the general shocks of life. There is something about the way Rice puts it all to music that is never pretentious, yet forces you to stop and pay attention. Basically it gives you a glimpse of the contradictions inherent in ourselves, especially when it comes to the L word. Cheers darlin' for example, was so sad I wanted to cry, at the same time it left me strangely optimistic. His songs express emotions in such a lush and sensuous manner that you begin to wonder if he has a supernatural ability to see and translate all things relating to emotions. |
