Damien Rice

Call me cynical but, MOst of the time when I hear/read a musician talking and going on about certain things, I think they come across as a bit of a cock

I've heard this guys name a while back, but don't think I'd heard any of his stuff. He was on chan 4 the other night. Had some of his music on there and he was chatting away. As soon as he started going on about used to be in a band, and they got signed and had a hit etc... and how he felt hollow about it, wasn't really into the music...... I clicked into cynical git MOde. Yeah Yeah! Like wow man! You're like soooo deep! :lol:
He went on to say about how he ended up just going away somewhere, think he said something about cottages, MOuntains and forests. And when he was there started writing much better and personaly pleasing stuff. deeeeeeeeep :gary:

The MOre he went on though, the MOre genuine sounded! And making a concious effort to believe he may have been sincer in his feeling and what he was saying........ you know what? I think I believed the guy!

He did the cliché thing about award ceroMOnies being like a whore to *the industry*etc... And when the winner of some (unexpected) award, he said along the lines of "blah blah, i'm just an ordinary guy. i can be a tit like any other guy. I f@ck up like any other guy. Take the songs, enjoy them, they were given to me, now i'm giving them to you...." All in a fine Irish accent.

He said he wrote an album and it was good. Played it to people and they all really liked it. But in the end he felt it was no MOre than "good" and started from scratch.

Now this could make some of you non believer cringe! He said (I think about the song "eskiMO") that he was pissed off about something and through his guitar and it hit the wall or something. He felt bad about it straight away an picked the guitar up. Noticed a chip on it or something, he strummed a chord. Liked the chord, sang some lines, went from there.... Wrote that song and made an album he's truly happy with.

Here's a link to amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...3017/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_11_8/202-6616825-2611000 there's some reviews and samples on there. There's a few versions but this one had the samples.

Have I even said what he sounds like yet?
As said in the amazon reviews, it's acoustic (what I've heard) folk stylééé They mention Nick Drake which is along the right lines. The guitar that i've heard sounds MOre basic and simple than Drakes stuff, but still good!

Worth a listen me thinks!

 

I've got this album and it's a cracker, I now use it to show my friends how a good Hi-Fi should sound I thought the best track was Eskimo (the last one), nothing like a bit of operatic vocals to end the album. I've not thrown my guitar against the wall yet!

Do you know what band he was in before?

Wingnut

 

Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice spent his childhood fishing and daydreaming in the countryside of Celbridge, County Kildare. Painting and writing songs inspired him as a young man, motivating Rice to put a band together. The heavy, indie-rock sounds of Juniper were signed to Polygram in 1997 and "The World Is Dead" and "Weathermen" did moderately well on Irish radio. When it came time to recording a full-length album, contractual rules from the label prevented Juniper from doing so, so Rice split. He headed for the hills of Tuscany in 1999 and lived his life as a wanderer around Europe. Rice returned to Dublin within a year to focus on music once again, scrounging up enough money to record a demo. Rice sent it to producer/film composer David Arnold (Bjork, Nina Persson, Paul Oakenfold), and lucky for him, Arnold loved it. Arnold set Rice up in his very own mobile studio to make a record. His first single, "The Blower's Daughter', was an instant top 20 hit when it appeared in fall 2001. Shared gigs with McAlmont & Butler and folkie Kathryn Williams followed in summer 2002 when Rice released O in the UK.


Robert

 

know him well then Robert? :lol:

Cheers for that. And that reminds me, Kathryn Williams! I've got some of her stuff floating about somewhere, will need to dig it out.

 

I bought this for my ex for her birthday last month.

I listened to it with an open mind, I hope.

A great first track - if blatantly just like David Gray.

Then, well I dont know what happened, the songs worsened - and at an all time low an opera singer came in and started warbling.

I then started laughing at the music, its that bad IMHO.

Its like a parody/cliche of folk music. If folk music have their version of ''the darkness'' this is it!

My advice - theres SO much better out there. Get Solid Air, early david gray albums, get Nick Drakes back catalogue, but avoid this bag of spanners, its got a couple of good tracks only.


Hope I didnt overly piss anyone off, but Im sorry its crap IMHO.

 

Interesting!

I've not heard the whole album, but enjoyed what I did hear. I look forward to responses from those who have heard it properly.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

 

I'm not taking the bait! :chair: . I think that Damien Rice is more accomplished musically than David Gray, there's far more going on in his music which keeps me coming back, I got bored with David Grays albums after a few weeks and now I don't play them at all - I think they're both good artists, I just prefer Damien Rice.

Are you getting this album MO?

Wingnut

 

Well I'll try and hear MOre of it first. But what I have heard did sound good. I think asking santa for anything MOre would be taking the pi$$ a little Probably have to wait till the new year now.

If I don't like it, I'll blame you Deal?

 

Well I liked it, but Bottleneck didn't, so that's at least a 50:50 chance of liking it.

Wingnut

 

Hiya mate, I wouldnt go that far..


2 or three tracks were decent, and I liked them...

the rest....well..


Worth trying though Mo, you never know.

 

Ok then a 40:60 chance!

Wingnut