9

by

Damien Rice

Edit

I stumbled upon Damien Rice's debut "O" after hearing the completely in your face "The Blower's Daughter," which was very effectively used in the Mike Nichols movie "Closer." It's one of those songs that you can't get out of your head. "O" also included the catchy "Volcano" but what made it earn 5 stars for me was the complete confidence in which Rice just lets his musings come out. None of the other songs were as catchy, but no less enjoyable as he commanded attention even when he was almost silent.

"9" starts off with the gorgeous "9 Crimes," which even more than "The Blower's Daughter" had the fortune of getting some serious airtime as it was prominently used in a November sweeps episode of "Grey's Anatomy." That song has an otherwordly feel that I don't remember feeling since hearing Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" in the mid 1980's.

The rest of the release is by no means disappointing, but there has been such an influx of singer/songwriters in the past few years that it is difficult to stand out. Here Rice seems less concerned about letting you in on his thoughts as he did in "0", than in telling his tale and giving you the option of listening in if you want to. He does not project with the same force and it makes for a less showy record. To me that is not a bad thing as he could have easily made a sequel to "0", but here the stories are more dense, confusing, but ultimately quite universal.

If you liked "0" as a whole and not just the better know songs, it's a safe bet that you'll like "9." On the other hand if you don't like this type of confessional music, nothing here will change your mind about this artist.

No sophomore slump for Rice and here is to many more releases of this caliber. They can't all earn 5 stars, but there is a significant number of singer-songwriters who are proving that they too can hold their own in world where pre-packaged and overly produced releases seemed to be the only options in the horizon.

Damien Rice set the bar ridiculously high with his 2004 release, O. On his debut, there was incredible production and amazing sounds coming out of every track. While the follow up to O, also a single character title, 9, is a solid album, fans expecting the artistic saturation found on O will be somewhat disappointed. While Damien Rice's song writing is solid, his voice is great and the lyrics provide good images, we don't get anything like the backwards singing on "Cold Water," or the clinking glasses on the drunken "Cheers, Darling," or the raw emotion so direly expressed in "The Blower's Daughter" or "I Remember" or the Sweedish opera singing on "Eskimo." Instead we hear Rice producing an album that is more straight-ahead and with fewer layers. There's more electric instrumentation on this record as well, leaving fans thirsty for the acoustic tranquility of O as well. Don't get me wrong though, it's a pretty good album and if this were Rice's debut, it would probably score 4 stars or maybe even a 5. However, those of us wanting something equal to or greater than O will be a little confused by 9. It's still worth the money, but don't get your hopes up. Personally, I'll forgive Damien for a little sophomore slump and anxiously await his next release.