|
| |
Damien Rice
9
(Heffa/Vector/Warner
Bros.)
First Appeared in The Music Box, December 2006, Volume 13, #12
Written by John Metzger
Four years is a terribly long time to wait between albums, especially for an
artist who is attempting to leverage his initial breakthrough into a
longstanding career. Nevertheless, Damien Rice’s 9 was well worth the
wait, even if it doesn’t play out quite as effortlessly or as gorgeously as his
brilliant debut O. Although there are similarities between the two sets,
Rice, to his credit, chose to forsake the mere replication of his debut;
instead, he opted rather ambitiously to build upon the groundwork that he had
laid by filling his songs with more angst and experimentation as well as by
providing them with a cinematic framework. In a nutshell, however, this is both
a blessing and a curse.
As the opening overture 9 Crimes, from which the new collection
obtains its title, makes apparent, 9 is the anguished tale of two lovers
who have been ripped apart by their own insecurities and their subsequent
infidelities. Throughout the set, Rice couches his tortured musings in
arrangements that cross Van Morrison (The Animals Were Gone), Simon &
Garfunkel, (Coconut Skins), Radiohead (Elephant), and The White
Stripes (Me, My Yoke, & I) with the grand melodrama of Jeff Buckley and
the smartly written theatricality of Leonard Cohen. As the breathy vocals of
Lisa Hannigan mesh with Rice’s weary sadness, they simultaneously amplify the
distance between his characters and magnify the fragility of their connection.
Nevertheless, where all of O’s songs worked outside the context of the
endeavor, the success of 9’s material is completely dependent upon its
place within Rice’s overarching storyline. This is a strikingly bold move in the
cut-and-paste world of iPods and digital downloads, especially considering that
when they are extracted from his passion play, many of the tracks falter under
the weight of his repetitive cathartic release. Yet, when taken in full, they
extend the desperate search for love that Rice began to define on O,
although this time, he scores his words with music that assumes a disquietingly
darker air.
Although 9 retains O’s voyeuristically intimate ambience, it
also swaps some of its beauty for uncomfortable discordance. Elephant,
for example, begins as a barely audible whisper that rises and falls while its
melody slowly is transformed into a turbulently churning vortex of emotions; Rootless Tree rolls ever so gently along its acoustic-minded refrains before
its angered sentiments erupt in a string of expletives; and the distorted vocals
and rhythmic chug of Me, My Yoke & I slowly mutate into a mechanical roar
that disturbingly animates a sexual tryst. Suitably, 9 concludes with Sleep Don’t Weep, a sad and weary lullaby that finds Rice’s central
characters once again caught in an embrace that they both know must end. As they
drift into slumber, the song slips into an extended ambient tone that, in
capturing the sometimes unsettling stillness of night, provides a moment for
reflection upon their final fate.  ½
9 is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
|
