Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Fri 11 Nov 2006CD of the WeekDAMIEN RICE9Heffa****It would be very easy to see Damien Rice's new album as an extension of his 2002 debut, O - each record is sparsely produced, and each contains songs that will be/are loved and loathed in equal measure. Yet, where O was a slow-burning bolt from the blue, gaining ground leisurely but surely to the point where it has made Rice a very rich man, 9 comes from a consolidated, perhaps more intuitive place. Like O's material, the songs here also seep into you, and, aside from one major error - the baffling self-indulgence of Me, My Yoke and I will provide all of Rice's most vehement critics with enough ammunition to gun him down for the next few years - the remaining tracks contain some of the most honest expressions of emotional intensity you're likely to hear for quite some time.