Damien Rice
O

THE REVIEW

Damien Rice and his “O”

I open with its extraordinary closure “Eskimo” where that natural ability, called lyricism, is perfectly achieved: the soprano blends with Rice’s voice with such velvety power to reach the unreachable. “O” is of such rare internal beauty, one of my few chosen albums, intertwined with an affinity to Mojave 3. Human soul, a simple person in search of inner depth, sublime, melancholic, and catapulting voice, sweeping strings, acoustic guitars, cello, and the rosy voice of Lisa Hannigan, each track follows the next unbreathing, without pause, like an endless wave that cradles you in an infinite ocean of enchanting sirens.

An Irish boy who already has a certain value of life and pain coursing through his veins, who decides to leave his cold and intense country to learn the flavors of the world, travels across half of Europe, and plays wherever he can like a vagabond rich in sentiment, and then he stops in Pontassieve near Florence, and what is more wonderful than Tuscany, full of soul and enchanting beauty, of history and voices of the expressionistic cultural past like a Dantesque poem to paint his musical canvas? With great sacrifices, but above all with great courage he managed to pave his way by recording his first masterpiece “O” and he is only to be admired for the result at the first attempt, it’s a kind of warm colors, local flavor, scent of earth, intensity of lost or never found love, search for tranquility, balance, and truth, it’s the simplicity in his being that distinguishes him. All the tracks are of equal equality and transport and thus can be translated into a single word… LOVE.

Rice, an extraordinary icon of innate sensitivity, I like him so much, he touches all the hemispheres of the universe, perceptible sweetness in the imperceptible, that is, the true sense of human value. My soul...