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Maybe its because this is not my regular taste in music, but Damien Rice seems to have come from nowhere over night to deliver one of the finest albums of recent years. I know that over night success thing is just a myth and is perpetuated by the way the music industry works, but Rice seems to be the man of the moment and his success is born out by this album. A little research tells me that he released his debut single, The Blowers Daughter in 2002 and this is the Irish singer songwriters debut album which followed soon after.

Rice writes from the heart,a style reminiscent of David Gray in recent times, but carrying on a thread that weaves back in time to Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan and beyond. It is an emotional collection of songs, dripping with experience and that heart on the sleeve honesty that is so rare these days. Is if to empasize the importance of the songs, there is a fairly minimal approach to the instrumentation used here, when you buy this album you get Damien Rice, his songs and very little else. It does what it says on the tin, a rare quality in this age of over production and the domination of studio trickery over raw talent, and talent this man has.

Its not an album that requires a track by track break down as the songs seem to form part of a whole overall feeling, but some tracks do sum up the album well. To start with the Cannonball, the single that brought Rice to the attention of the uninitiated, me included, if you like this then the album is for you. The song is totally relient on guitar and vocals, and the words are some of the finest I have read in a long time. His voice has a unique quality, not perfect, but honest and with that slightly cracked and real feeling that matches the emotion of the songs. This is, as is all of the songs included here, a lesson in songwriting, the guitar mixes lead riffs and picked melodies but what stands out is the honest emotion of the words. In similar vein, The Blowers Daughter, as mentioned before the first track to be lifted from this album. Backed up, as is often the case, by the brooding tones of a cello, rising and falling against the words, this is a love song with out the cliches of modern fashion, personal and intimate.Now matter what Rice was trying to capture when penning this collection, it is a set of songs that anyone can relate to, the loves and losses that we have all been through. A female vocal provides the gentle counterpoint to Rices voice, and the stark passages only serve to reinforce

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