O is the first album from Irish singer songwriter Damien Rice. Rice evokes memories of a less watered down David Gray raised on a stern diet of Nick Drake. When originally released earlier this year in Ireland the album reached a handsome number seven in the album charts. It’s no small achievement for a talent-based singer/songwriter to reach such a glory.

The agenda seems firmly set out from the start, string laden, bare-boned arrangements a of thirty-something dinner party soundtrack. Not sounding too good then. “I Remember” then appears from nowhere to break the increasingly drippy tone set for the album, so that’s a hello to cracking vocals, distortion, beats and reverse tape samples. The following “Eskimo” is another saving grace, until the opera singing enters the fray, probably best not to ask what Damien was thinking when planning that particular arrangement.

The true highlight is an untitled hidden track, again it’s when Rice heads for the off-kilter distortion coated arrangements, cracked vocals approaching a scream that he strikes a path away from the mild manners that taint much of the record. Just when it’s starting to prick your ears up a cover of “Silent Night” begins. Big mistake. All that said, it beats most of the overtly tame products of this genre and any traditional based Irish band not featuring a family of anorexic white toothed, black haired, violin-playing fakers is something worthy of respect.

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