I hate being "slow".
It really aggravates me when people (especially me) are slow to pick up on things. How is it that an album of such "extraordinary magnitude" (yes, that's a Kentucky Fried Movie reference) as Damien Rice's O could've escaped my knowledge for two whole years? It took a Rolling Stone mention and the referral of a friend to turn me on to Damien and now I'm all over it like white on, err... Rice.

In any event, if you were to combine something like David Gray and Howie Day (whose lastest album Stop All the World Now is easily one of my favorite releases of 2003) and blended it with something really depressing that happens to have really good orchestration with stuff like a cello and a back-up vocalist who sings like a glorious angel of good singing, then you might get O. A singer/songwriter who isn't overly artsy, mainstreamy, emotive, or shallow is an incredible find indeed. And that's what I've FINALLY discovered in D-Rice.

Making up for lost time.
So, I recently hopped on eBay and picked up a limited release live CD titled Live from the Union Chapel. If you can find a copy, I thoroughly suggest picking it up as it's really an incredible live performace. The live version of "Volcano" has more of an edgy feel than its studio counterpart (which is by far my favorite selection from O). At only eight tracks in length, I was starved for more Rice and popped on over to Half.com where I ordered the Woman Like Man EP.

I've also discovered there's a promo-only version of the Union Chapel CD that has only five tracks. However, two of the tracks were not included on the "official" release including the instantaly addictive single "Cannonball". As such, I'll probably end up bidding on one of those until I have it in my greedy little grippers at a reasonable price. While I'm at it, I may hunt down a copy of the "Volcano" import CD single as it contains a alternate instrumental version of the song (still a sucker for remixes, I am).

I ought to mention that the back-up vocalist I mentioned earlier, Lisa Hannigan, is more than capable of stepping up into the spotlight on her own. Without Hannigan and cellist Vyvienne Long, I'm sure I'd still dig Rice. However, Hannigan and Long are so critical to Rice's sound that it almost appalls me that the CDs aren't billed as Rice, Hannigan, and Long... or RHL... or Rihalo... or...

On the web: Damien Rice homepage