If I had heard Damien Rice’s “Older Chests” first, I would have dismissed him as having too much style, and not enough substance. Had I heard his single, Cannonball, first, I probably would have grudgingly said that the guy could write a catchy song, but that one is probably the highlight of an unremarkable, formulaic, album. Alas, I heard Bower’s daughter first, on Launch Cast a couple of years ago, and knew I would have the buy the CD some day.
Well yeah, Cannonball is so filled with what Pitchfork Media
calls “overwrought, acoustic sap” that there really isn’t room for much else. When Rice locks into his verses of paradox couplets (“courage teach me to be shy…a stone taught me to fly”) the song coasts by on the strength of his persuasive voice and catchy melody. He makes you comfortable, and to his credit, he manages to tie the song together before letting it get too foolish, “Water, washing me dry” or some other such nonsense. Oh, its all nonsense, I reckon, be he never goes off the deep end, so after you hear it once and realize the worst its going to get is “love taught me cry” you can just sit back and enjoy a very listenable song.
That “Older Chests” sounds a lot like what I would hope to find on better songwriters’ editing room floors.
Like time, there's always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I'll be fine
Just give me time
REPEAT
Ugh. It’s a pretty song. It would be a good one to add your own lyrics to. Please. Somebody.
But Bower’s daughter really hits the spot. Hits it hard and fast. The song structure, delivery, and lyrics work perfectly together to deliver a potent message. It’s a terrific song. Sentimental to the gills, but brilliant, and brilliantly executed. Listen to it, and Cannonball, here.
As good as this song is, it may not hold up too well, with all its dramatics. Don’t consider this to be too big of a knock on the song though as I would like to buck a disturbing trend of people judging art by how they hold up to repeat viewing. It’s a nice feature to be able to enjoy a movie 15 times, but if it loses something on its second or third viewing, that first amazing first experience shouldn’t be discounted. You aren’t supposed to marry the thing. The same is only slightly less true for music.
People talk about the earnestness of Conner Oberyst, which is a palpable quality of his music. Conner’s is a Bright earnestness. Rice’s is always bit more painful. Considering that all his songs are of a darker nature, you might find his agony a bit contrived. The terrific song “Volcano” goes some way alleviates that concern. If you want a song that you can listen to a few dozen times, that’s the one.
The rest of the album too maybe. It seems uneven too me but I can see a lot of people liking it. I’ll keep listening, on the strength of the first 5 songs, and Staci’s recommendation. But her, and everybody else, shouldn’t be listening to this CD, without first devouring Ryan Adam’s Heartbreaker, and Bright Eyes’ “Its morning, I’m wide awake”, which are truly great albums by obvious contemporaries.
( I was going to call Rice a sad man’s Jack Johnson, but that’s a pretty sloppy statement. The comparison, inaccurate as it is, would have let me make a few points about Bob Schneider (opera singers) and Leonard Cohen (Eskimos), but mostly I would have been able to point out that both Rice and Johnson have an eminently engaging nature too them, yet Rice manages to not lecture you on EVERY DAMN SONG. Jack was on at the Virginia Summer-fest trying to get me to recycle or something. Stick it up your ass, Jack)
