Damien Rice
O

"O" is the debut album of Damien Rice, an Irish singer-songwriter known for his involvement, in the second half of the '90s, with the indie rock group Juniper, with whom he reached a decent level of fame in the UK.
After Juniper disbanded, Damien left his native Dublin for the hills of Tuscany, in search of new ideas and musical inspiration, and the result of his Italian pilgrimage is the beautiful "O", undoubtedly one of the most surprising and unexpected albums of the past music season.

10 tracks plus a ghost track for an hour of good music, balancing between folk, indie sounds, and low-fi, that warms the heart on cold winter days, with calm and relaxing moments and (few) almost always contained explosions.
Damien Rice's voice is deep and touching, often accompanied by the talented folk singer Kathryn Williams, and is filled with a sense of sadness present in almost all the songs of this "O", an album that surprises with each listen, and gives us little gems like the opening Delicate, the melancholic Cannonball, one of the most refined and successful songs stylistically, where he gives us moments of pure poetry ("Stones taught me to fly, love taught me to lie, life, it taught me to die, so it's not hard to fall when you float like a cannonball..."), continuing with the indie noise of I Remember, up to the final and moving Eskimo, where the lyrical singing overlaps with Damien Rice's magnificent voice for an astonishing result.
All of this is accompanied by a meticulously crafted artwork and a booklet rich in lyrics, drawings, and artworks by the singer-songwriter himself, which enrich an already perfect album.

In short, Damien Rice hits the mark with a touching and superlative debut album, a magnificent first work praised by critics, who did not hesitate to compare him to songwriting legends like Jeff Buckley. While waiting for the second album (which will be much more rock), we content ourselves with this magnificent "O", a deep album that knows how to touch the strings of the soul with music that seems to come from afar, when it is instead much closer to our hearts. Passed with flying colors.