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Reviewed by Greg Baysans * * *
aka Poet X
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"O" by Damien Rice
"O" is, in my "o"-pinion, for "Opera" in the case of Damien Rice's excellent, self-produced "O." Not grand opera, nearly soap opera, but opera. The song-cycle is strung together with urgency that makes them an emotional roller coaster by the end. I don't recommend hearing these songs "out of order". In this opera there are four main characters: the singer; Amie, the singer's ex; the unnamed love interest of the singer; and the "lover-boy" or "lover-man" married to the unnamed love interest of the singer. A tragic doom hangs over the entire CD, a mystery to some. To me it seems easy, the unnamed love is a man. I know it in my bones. He's jilted Amie because he's gay. Amie, it seems, had a sort of Apocalyptic view of the end of the last century which she still isn't over. A religious fanatic female and a gay man together, what a couple. Now that I put it that way, I've seen it. More than once. I've browsed a few other reviews of this CD online and found a scathing one or two. I dismiss them. I am, however, reminded of another album, Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell" for it's story-telling ability. That album was for a long time a sort of flash-in-the-pan for its creator. Damien Rice will be appearing in Portland on April 2, 2004, and I've got my ticket. I'll update this page/review and include a review of it here after it happens.
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