Release Date: 10 June, 2003
Audio CD
Tracks
- Delicate
- Volcano
- Blower's Daughter
- Cannonball
- Older Chests
- Amie
- Cheers Darlin'
- Cold Water
- I Remember
- Eskimo
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Rating 4.5
I wish i could give more than 5 starsDamien Rice's voice, combined with the cello has the power to make you want to cry. I heard " Blower's Daughter" when i bought the " Closer" DVD. I didn't even know who he was but i sat in front of the t.v pausing and rewinding the credits to figure out who was singing the song. i immediately bought the cd and it has been a romance ever since. And for anyone who wants to buy the cd you should listen to the bonus track that comes after "Eskimo", just wait a few minutes after the song ends and another song will start. that song i believe, closes the chapter on the entire cd. This cd is worth buying, all the songs are beautiful. 'O'? No. Almost anyone can be a Damien Rice. Every campus across America contains a few. You know, that broken-hearted pretty boy who's never without his acoustic guitar; always seen with his hair in his eyes and a poetry notebook in his hand. They've always existed in one form or the other, and, in all probability, always will.
And Damien is their king.
Armed with the aforementioned guitar and notebook filled with adult-contemporary "poetic" clich?©s, Mr. Rice is ready and willing to spill his aching heart to anyone who'll listen. And, in all likelihood, it'll sound darn familiar.
O is no-nonsense singer-songwriter slop, taking away everything that makes Five Leaves Left and Songs of Love and Hate so compelling and slathering the rest invanilla ice cream. Maybe I've listened to too much Jeff Mangum, Bob Dylan and Devendra Banhart lately to appreciate "normal" male vocals, or maybe I'm just sick of acoustic love songs in general (a combination of both, actually) but nothing here resonates with me, at all.
He walks an odd line here, taking just enough minor chances to put him above the glut of mainstream singer/songwriters, but not enough to make his work memorable or praiseworthy. An oboe at the beginning of a song can't make up for its utter insignificance. And insignificant is an apt descriptor for everything off O. The album is consistently pretty, occasionally lapsing into `gorgeous', but it fails to make any major impact. The backing voices on "Cold Water" can't decide whether they want to be Gregorian chant or Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and end up just sounding stupid. At the end of the of the song they come back for a short backwards snippet that's absolutely terrifying. Not creepy in a good way; terrifying.
The final track, "Eskimo" contains an operatic crescendo that is easily the album's best moment, but Damien unwisely decides to add not one, but two hidden tracks at the end. Even sadder, the first track would be one of the disk's better moments, but not when you have to go through five minutes of silence to hear it. The second, an acapella female version of Silent Night with completely different lyrics, is ill advised whatsoever.
I'm sure this will appeal to thousands of angsty teen-age girls across America who are getting tired of their John Mayer and Maroon 5 CDs, but anyone who's heard the artists he apes here will know the betterNever oldThis is music that I never tire of- it's emotionally charged and expressive in an unforgettable way....... |
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