Damien Rice - O + B-Sides (2004)

Artist...............: Damien Rice
Album................: O + B-Side
Genre................: Folk
Source...............: Cd
Year.................: 2004
Ripper...............: Exact Audio Copy
Codec................: FLAC
Information..........: TntVillage
Covers...............: Front
Total Size...........: 631 Mb


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Rewiev
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Magnificently packaged in a CD-sized hardcover book filled with personal artwork, lyrics, and photos,

Damien Rice's debut full-length, O, is nothing less than a work of genius, a perfect cross between Ryan

Adams and David Gray and a true contender for one of the best albums of 2003. This Irish singer/songwriter

works with impassioned folk songs that move from stripped-down to grandly orchestrated in a heartbeat. The

production is reminiscent of Songs of Leonard Cohen -- simple guitars, vocals, and then those swelling

strings, all of which sound like they were recorded right in the same room. Rice is master of what

critic/ranter Richard Meltzer called "the unknown tongue" -- basically the musical equivalent of the

"punctum" in photos, it's that thing that grabs a hold of you, the detail that makes it happen. For

example, on "Delicate" the strings lift the spare folk song to the heavens at just the moment that makes

the song soar -- Meltzer might call it the "folk tongue" or maybe even the "epic tongue." The magnificent,

melancholy, optimistic, longing, almost magical "The Blower's Daughter" comes in immediately as the

previous song, "Volcano," ends -- same thing with the song that follows -- which gives the album a broad,

operatic quality. The gentle "Cannonball," the bright strumming and surreal feedback on "Amie," the distant

piano and oceanic harmonies (not to mention drowning, backwards vocals) on the duet, "Cold Water" -- the

entire record makes the empty highway less lonely, the sunshine a little warmer, and life a little more

poetic. Then there's the actual opera singer doing backup vocal duties on "Eskimo" -- a song of redemption

that is Syd Barrett, is Skip Spence, is Grandaddy and is Mercury Rev and everything that implies. What a

metaphor for Rice's entire hopelessly beautiful record -- one long angelic hymn for an insane world with

the intimacy of a friend playing guitar in your living room and the grandeur of Sigur Rós.



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Tracklist
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Disc 1 - O
01. Delicate
02. Volcano
03. The Blower's Daughter
04. Cannonball
05. Older Chests
06. Amie
07. Cheers Darlin'
08. Cold Water
09. I Remember
10. Eskimo/Untitled/Silent Night

Disc 2 - B-Side
01. The Professor & La fille danse [live at Cornucopia]
02. Lonelily [original demo]
03. Woman Like A Man [live unplugged]
04. Moody Mooday
05. Delicate [live in Dublin]
06. Volcano [instrumental]
07. Volcano ['97 demo]
08. Cannonball [radio remix]