It's hard to pin down what to say about Damien Rice's incredible concept piece, O. From the name (which I thought was "Zero" instead of the letter for a few months) to the lilting vocals and the extraordinary songwriting, Rice hit it out of the park with this 2003 release.
The first time I heard the opening song ("Delicate") I thought, "Well, it's great, but there's no way he can match it." So many songwriters put their heart and soul into one number, then just use the other 9-12 as filler so they can make an album. A big offender in this area has to be Lily Allen on her first CD. "Smile" was a great song with fun lyrics and a catchy beat, but the rest just kind of paled in comparison.
But there is no coasting to be found on O. To the contrary, Rice creates a perfect bell curve of emotion. The beginning starts off great, the middle becomes unbelievable, then the end kind of shifts back down to great again. Songs like "Older Chests" and "Amie" are the most intimate pieces, the latter sounding like U2 in their prime. The haunting finale is also worth a mention, putting in not one, but two bonus tracks after the last song has faded away.
Of course it wouldn't be right not to give substantial credit to Rice's vocal partner, Lisa Hannigan, who guest sings on more than half the songs. Usually it's just backup, but occasionally she does a full-on duet with Damien. She even solos on the very last song, an a cappella re-tooling of Silent Night. This has to be one of the most ludicrously gorgeous covers in the history of music.
The best part: the entire thing is utterly timeless. It could be from the early nineties, it could be alongside Carol King in the record shop. That's the thing about Damien Rice: he proves that awesome songs transcend age. By putting so little production on them, he avoids the "in the moment" pitfall ninety percent of artists fall into.
O is simply one of the best full albums I have ever heard. Every song is like a gift from Rice himself, wrapped in strings and flutes and sensitivity, making it a definite buy for music lovers everywhere.
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