Damien Rice - O (Review: MattJ)

Well to start it off I had never even heard of Damien Rice before it was posted here, I can't imagine why. This album sounded like I expected it too - acoustic, melodic voice, love songs. Although I did expect a thick Irish accent and was a bit disappointed when I didn't hear one (I won't mark it down in my rating because of this). Also, I'm going to say this now, there was nothing about the songs that I didn't like, but I really can't say that this is a brilliant album - I'll explore this more in a bit.

Damien's voice is very good. You can hear the emotion in his voice and this is a massive positive. I love the intensity I got from songs like Amie, Cheers Darlin' ("What am I!?") and especially the end of I Remember, this was not down to the instrumentation - which is pretty standard - it's all about his and the guest vocalist's voices. But mostly Damien's. But it's not just intensity that Damien Rice provides; he manages to calm the listener with simple songs like 'Delicate' and 'Cold Water'. The main task for songs like these, I think, is to manage to have such slow lovely songs without them becoming boring - and this is something that is done throughout.

Whilst listening to this album I just kept on comparing him to Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith and City and Colour. I didn't really want to but I kept on doing it in my head, and this is the reason why I didn't love the album. I just personally think that Buckley and Smith are superior singer-songwriters. It feels bad to mark down an artist purely on personal opinion but I feel I have to. I have to because it's all I really have to go on. Give me a hip-hop album and there are certain factors that I need to have to consider it a good album, same goes for a 70s Rock album - but when it comes to singer-songwriters on their own with acoustic instruments I don't know where I stand. I just listen and see if I like. That is why I've found this a difficult album to score and review.

Overall I like this album, and Damien Rice has a very nice voice. I'm going to add his next album, 9, to the ever growing list of artists I wish to listen to. I'm going to give this album 4/5 for brilliant singing, top notch production and nice music.