Damien Rice: O

(Damien Rice Music/RMG)
by Alexis Petridis
Friday August 9, 2002

High on the list of Things Music Needs No More Of, just below chill-out compilations and anything endorsed by Simon Cowell, lurk folky singer-songwriters. On the surface, this self-produced debut by Dublin's Damien Rice is standard stuff - acoustic lamentations, swirling string arrangements - but, like Kathryn Williams, Rice's personality and deft songwriting hoist him above the mass of bedsit mumblers. Cold Water's wracked vocal overeggs the tortured troubadour pudding, but at its best, O is gorgeous and understated, never too introverted to include a lovely melody. The songs' intimacy is heightened by the flat production. Canonball and Amie perfectly fix a drowsy, end-of-the-season melancholy. Whatever the actual circumstances, O sounds as if it was recorded in the sweltering early hours at the end of summer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,771211,00.html