Rice's voice is beautiful, and in it's human imperfection, convey's a world of deep emotion. The vocal style can change from song to song, but his ability to sing straight to your soul is always there. The lyrics are deep and they burn.

'Cold Water' made me weep, I was so caught up. The Gregorian chant at the end was a perfect emotional denouement. 'I Remember' hurt, it was so good.

Lisa Hannigan's vocals are woven together with Rice's in a perfect compliment. Her voice begins where his ends.

Cellist Vyvienne Long adds a deep, grounding tone that is haunting.

The acoustic guitar arrangement went from spartan to a wall of sound. The organic feel augmented the feel of the whole album.

As my friend watched me listen for the first time, I knew I had a problem on my hands.

What could I possibly do to return this favor?


Overwhelming In Its Display Of Raw Human Emotion   August 27, 2004
Busy Body (London, England)
151 out of 159 found this review helpful

When I look back in a few year's time at the music that most impressed me in 2004, the name Damien Rice will jump out at me like a sore thumb. After spending the past year pretty much oblivious to this new singer, I finally came around to his overwhelming appeal and popularity as his debut album began climbing the UK album charts. With little promotion apart from a simple advert on TV, Damien Rice has gone from being a little-known singer to an internationally-acclaimed star and the one to watch over the next year or so. I was in London last weekend (to see Madonna in concert!) and went shopping, and ended up buying Rice's debut album "O." I listened to it all the way home on the coach and completely fell in love with it.

Released in the summer of 2003, O came along and made a minor impact in the charts despite strong reviews. However, from simple word-of-mouth, the album has gone on to become one of the year's success stories. The sound of the album is basically a good-looking Irish man with a guitar singing songs of extreme melancholy but with immense passion and dedication. His style is distinctive and fresh in an industry flooded with watered-down pop and R'n'B radio-fodder, and from the first song I heard on this album I was hooked. Damien Rice, ladies and gentlemen, is the saviour of the modern music industry.

O opens with the fantastic slow song "Delicate." With just a guitar, cello and bass Mr. Rice crafts a beautiful and melancholy song that is particularly special to me. The first time I heard it I was remembering the day before when I met someone at the Madonna concert who had a big impact on me, and I couldn't help feeling an immense sadness and regret for not asking for his e-mail address or telephone number to stay in touch. This song perfectly captures those emotions for me, and for many others I am sure it will too. "Volcano" is a gorgeous and catchy mid-tempo number with a remarkable bass and various percussion instruments, accompanied by gorgeous female vocals. "The Blower's Daughter" is next and is a particular stand out for me. Rice sings with such passionate yearning. When his voice cracks over the bass and the gentle guitar, you feel everything he is feeling, and then he repeats "I can't take my eyes off of you" over and over to capture your imagination. The best part of the song, however, comes after the third minute when the female voice comes in again, and it is *absolutely beautiful* - I swear down it will make your heart flutter and you'll sit there in amazement as she sings "Did I say that I loathe you?"

The album's most popular song comes next in the shape of "Cannonball." With an instantly recognisable melody, Rice's beautiful vocals and soft guitar-playing warms your heart as you find yourself in familiar territory. ""Older Chests" is one of my favourite songs on the album, because of the images it paints in your mind. Damien is once again accompanied by beautiful female vocals towards the end of the song as he sings, "Time, always time, on my mind. Pass me by, I'll be fine, just give me time." The next song is the beautiful "Amie." With a gorgeous cello that sounds like a revealing sunrise at dawn and a breathtaking string section to close the song, this is one song that you won't forget in a hurry. Absolutely masterful. "Cheers Darlin'" is a unique song because Rice reveals his humorous personality as he sings drunkenly about his ex-girlfriend and her new lover boy! The gentle clinking of glasses represent the drunk-effect, and the gentle saxophone brings about the melancholy sadness of loss.

"Cold Water" is another highlight of the album for me. It opens beautiful with a sound that is like echoes amongst a chilly pond, the gentle tears of winter rain gracefully skimming the surface. Rice opens the song with "Cold, cold water!" in a feeble and reclusive voice that is filled with emotion. Just when things get too much for him, Lisa Hannigan's beautiful voice arrives to support him. Then, the gorgeous and gentle hum of Gregorian chants mingle with Hannigan's vocals and swirl the song around your brain. "I Remember" is a really remarkable song, but not really one of my favourites. Infact, it's the only song that I don't enjoy on the album. A female voice opens the album and carries on for a few minutes before Rice comes in and screeches his vocals like a man possessed as he battles his inner demons. The song closes with the fantastic "Eskimo." The words to describe this song are cute, epic and revealing. Cute because of Damien's voice and the words "So I look to my Eskimo friend!" and epic because of the grand Opera-vocals that come in towards the end from Doreen Curran. Why revealing though? Just the music is a true revelation that can mean a number of things to the listener. A symbol of strength in dark times, a glimmer of hope in depression - anything.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

The song also has two bonus songs tagged on the end of the album, but they are both a continuation of track 10 which makes Eskimo appear to be 16 minutes in length when it really isn't. This is by far the most beautiful and relaxing album that I have come across since Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me" and Bjork's "Vespertine." I have never come across a male vocalist so passionate and dedicated whilst displaying so much emotion. He doesn't overdo it though, because in the case of Mr. Rice, excess is never a problem. I look forward to hearing much more from him the future. There are no options. You simply must buy this album.


AS THE IRISH SAY...."BRILLIANT"!   June 12, 2003
Mark A. Fergus (Los Angeles, CA USA)
35 out of 38 found this review helpful

This guy is soon to be a household name. It's incredible that this record is just getting a U.S. release, having been out in Ireland for over a year. Damien Rice picks up where Jeff Buckley left off, and reminds us what great songwriting is all about. Haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking and hilarious, all at the same time. Enough said. Get this record and go see this guy play live. You will be blown away.


One of the most impossibly beautiful albums ever released   September 13, 2006
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

Although I knew "The Blower's Daughter" from the film CLOSER and "Delicate" from LOST, Damien Rice has until recently been unexplored territory for me. What I didn't know is that his album O is not a disc with only one or two great songs, but one of the most from-beginning-to-end brilliant albums of recent years. Vocally Rice reminds me of a lot of other performers. Jeff Buckley and Ryan Adams spring to mind, there is even something of the very young Leonard Cohen in the songs. But this album is more consistently brilliant than anything released by those singers. He isn't quite the singer that Jeff Buckley was (but then who is?), but he is a much better songwriter. His songwriting reminds me somewhat of Hayden, but it is much more dramatic, lush, and expressive and his singing is in an entirely different league. There is also a soft serenity to the music that is nearly as gently calming as the best of Iron and Wine. Actually, Rice and Iron and Wine's Sam Beam write songs that evoke many of the same feelings, though Rice is a far stronger vocalist (though it has to be granted that Beam is perhaps unrivalled as a lyricist today--I think you have to go to people like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to find a demonstrably better lyricist than Sam Beam).

Any album is going to have some blend of stronger and weaker songs, but here the mix is really between exceptionally gorgeous and merely gorgeous songs. Far too often you have a strong album, but one or two cuts blow all the others out of the water. But here you get the almost painfully beautiful "The Blower's Daughter" sandwiched between "Volcano" and "Cannonball." And "Volcano" is preceded by "Delicate." So, the album basically starts off with four amazingly great songs, almost any of which would normally have the potential to become a minor classic. But here is the shocker: the rest of the album is nearly as good and at times better. "Older Chests," "Amie," and "Cheers Darlin'" is as strong a trio as the three songs I mentioned above. And then the album ends on "I Remember" and "Eskimo." This is just a ludicrous amount of great music. This album is indeed an embarrassment of riches. It isn't enough to say that there are no weak cuts on the album: there are only a couple of songs that can't be described as almost impossibly beautiful.

This is one of the most intimate albums I've ever heard. Continuing the reference to Sam Beam, the only albums I know of that has more of an intimate feel than this one are Iron and Wine's THE CREEK DRANK THE CRADLE and OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS. If on those albums it sounds as if Beam was sitting directly behind you and whispering into your ear, on O Damien Rice sounds like he is sitting two feet in front of you and singing directly to you. The arrangements are in keeping with this. Often a song is performed with only Rice's guitar and a few minimal embellishments by back up vocalists or percussionists (never drums as such), or a firmly restrained string section. Most of the guitar work is acoustic, but even when an electric guitar is used it is so delicate that you hardly notice it. Although the arrangements could be described as minimalist, the album nonetheless has an incredibly dramatic, almost operatic feel to it. This truly is a masterpiece of the first rank.

Is Damien Rice a genius? I don't know. One album does not a genius make, even one so grand as this. But if Rice releases a second album as fine as this, I'm willing to so nominate him. I have absolutely no idea why I have only now discovered this gem. I'm pushing it off on all my friends now, regardless of their taste. I suppose there are people who won't like this, but I wonder about their capacity to enjoy good music if they don't. I listen to a ton of music, but this is definitely going to go down as one of the best albums I have discovered this year, no matter how good the albums I discover the rest of the year.


Amazing   June 11, 2003
29 out of 31 found this review helpful

This is one of the best and most original cds I have ever heard, one of those rare albums that can bring tears to your eyes and chills to your spine. I can't compare this music to anyone else's. The use of classical and opera, the melodies, and the incredible voices of Damien, and of Lisa Hannigan who joins him on several tracks. It's not often music can be described as beautiful. This is. Do yourself a favor and buy this album.