Damien Rice
As of late, he's become quite popular because of being featured in the movie "Closer." What I find interesting is that he's not quite an easy sell.
A couple years back, when "O" was released in the US, I had a few English tourists ask to see if we'd gotten his album yet. I would tell them we hadn't until we finally did, and I bought our first copy. Immediately, I loved it. It held one of those qualities that make you reluctant to share it with the rest of the world. His voice and his instrumentation are like a jewel that you feel will begin to loose it's luster once it's been spread around to the outside world.
Ther album itself is full of contridictions. It's surprisingly lush, but somehow, it's as intimate as live, accoustic set in a dive bar on the edge of town where you find that you are the only one listening, and everyone else is too busy drinking away their evening. Each song is long a angry, reflective smoke that you find yourself lighting up cigarette after cigarette as the album wears on. Sometimes it flicks angrily, and blows smoke in someone's face. Sometimes it's smiles and begs. And sometimes it simply lets the ash smolder into a long, cylidnrical line while you think about our life being pissed away.
Originally, this album really was a hard sell. I would try to get people to listen to it, but there weren't many takers. It was too new and probably too raw for most American listeners.
Then Closer come along and they didn't make a soundtrack for the movie, and Damien Rice has simply exploded in the US. People will buy it without even taking the time to listen to it because one song was in a movie they liked. Maybe it's also because a freind of theirs told them that simply had to listen to it and that they would love it. It reminds me of what happened to Norah Jones when "Come Away With Me" was released back in 2002. It took a while, it was a hard sell, but after enough play and enough talking and cajolling, little old ladies with too much money to spend are buying it.
What worries is me is that these gems of albums will be tossed on in their cars once, listened too, and then cast aside for the next big thing. (Which sadly seems to be Il Divo.) They don't take the time to listen to the songs, hear the swelling of the instruments, or even really think about the lyrics. What scares me is that something I love deeply will become throwaway pop to the rest of the world, a victim of over exposure and subject for pop-culture vulture ridicule.
So for right now, I offer up a song from Damien Rice and urge everyone to take a listen to it, consider it. If you don't like it, you don't like it. There's nothing that can be changed about that. But I urge everyone not to rave over something they honestly don't like. It might be nice to the artists pocket book, but is it really fair to them?
Of course, I think I feel the same way about people who claim to like Pink Floyd after only listening to "Another Brick in the Wall pt 2" or as it is annoyingly called by the uninitiated "We Don't Need No Education" or "The Wall." Which is the name of the album the bloody song is on.
Damien Rice: "O"
http://box.net/public/themadterran/files/259438.html
A couple years back, when "O" was released in the US, I had a few English tourists ask to see if we'd gotten his album yet. I would tell them we hadn't until we finally did, and I bought our first copy. Immediately, I loved it. It held one of those qualities that make you reluctant to share it with the rest of the world. His voice and his instrumentation are like a jewel that you feel will begin to loose it's luster once it's been spread around to the outside world.
Ther album itself is full of contridictions. It's surprisingly lush, but somehow, it's as intimate as live, accoustic set in a dive bar on the edge of town where you find that you are the only one listening, and everyone else is too busy drinking away their evening. Each song is long a angry, reflective smoke that you find yourself lighting up cigarette after cigarette as the album wears on. Sometimes it flicks angrily, and blows smoke in someone's face. Sometimes it's smiles and begs. And sometimes it simply lets the ash smolder into a long, cylidnrical line while you think about our life being pissed away.
Originally, this album really was a hard sell. I would try to get people to listen to it, but there weren't many takers. It was too new and probably too raw for most American listeners.
Then Closer come along and they didn't make a soundtrack for the movie, and Damien Rice has simply exploded in the US. People will buy it without even taking the time to listen to it because one song was in a movie they liked. Maybe it's also because a freind of theirs told them that simply had to listen to it and that they would love it. It reminds me of what happened to Norah Jones when "Come Away With Me" was released back in 2002. It took a while, it was a hard sell, but after enough play and enough talking and cajolling, little old ladies with too much money to spend are buying it.
What worries is me is that these gems of albums will be tossed on in their cars once, listened too, and then cast aside for the next big thing. (Which sadly seems to be Il Divo.) They don't take the time to listen to the songs, hear the swelling of the instruments, or even really think about the lyrics. What scares me is that something I love deeply will become throwaway pop to the rest of the world, a victim of over exposure and subject for pop-culture vulture ridicule.
So for right now, I offer up a song from Damien Rice and urge everyone to take a listen to it, consider it. If you don't like it, you don't like it. There's nothing that can be changed about that. But I urge everyone not to rave over something they honestly don't like. It might be nice to the artists pocket book, but is it really fair to them?
Of course, I think I feel the same way about people who claim to like Pink Floyd after only listening to "Another Brick in the Wall pt 2" or as it is annoyingly called by the uninitiated "We Don't Need No Education" or "The Wall." Which is the name of the album the bloody song is on.
Damien Rice: "O"
http://box.net/public/themadterran/files/259438.html
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10:35 AM
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