Review Summary: In its entirety, 9 proves to be a masterwork. It's haunting and unsettling. It's beautiful and poignant. Rice's lyrics are genuine, his voice elegant. The instrumentation is skillful and interesting. It catches the ear easily, not letting go until it en
I recently listened to this album for the first time after hearing some of his work on Pandora, with each of his songs being weirdly familiar to me. I ordered his debut, O, and it's coming in the mail shortly, so I wanted to review 9 without comparing it to the acclaim of the debut to give it a deserved rating.
When listening to this album Rice's talent shines. He wrote, recorded, produced and mixed it himself, playing most of the instruments himself. A few tracks are more experimental, having odd structures and riffs, while a couple are angry and bitter, and all are beautiful. He conveys polar-opposite moods, but it blends extremely well. Throughout, Rice tends to have a solid sound, with the cello thrown in at various strategic points, the piano striking a sense of somberness. The tracks, although slow at times, are always entertaining and delightful. I mentioned familiarity above because each song seems somewhat natural and personal, but not generic enough to be unoriginal. Lisa Hannigan's backing vocals, including the duet '9 Crimes', are a nearly perfect compliment to his own, being alarmingly soothing. Damien's own voice is smooth, with sleek falsettos, haunting lows and desirable highs. His vocals are always the center of the song, never disappointing, with melodies that define beauty and elegance. At times, you're thrown into a whirlwind of emotions, each entirely welcoming. Most of the album is without faults.
The only problems I have with the album are the lack of variety and the order the songs are arranged. While lacking variety, it's not really a serious problem because the quality of each track is overwhelming. With such brilliant and satisfying songs, it's hard to complain for more. The album isn't lacking variety altogether, as I've mentioned there are a few experimental tracks that do work exceptionally well. One track reminds me of Radiohead's Kid A, with odd structure, jazzy riffs and strange lyrics. If it were me, I would have better placed the last few tracks, it slowly loses balance towards the end, with a long, uneventful track placed before the closer. I would have placed it at the very end of the album so as not to interrupt the interesting flow of the album. These are minor nuisances, however, that really don't steal anything from 9. They're easily ignored.
