Damien Rice - 9

Damien Rice has a new album, entitled "9", coming out on November 14th. This is very exciting news for those of us who adored his first release, 2003's "O". Damien's melancholy folk style on O made it feel like an instant classic. It was sincere, beautiful and had a lot of emotion in it. I have high hopes for 9 after hearing the first track from the album, "9 Crimes", which is really beautiful and reminiscent of tracks from O. Perhaps I shouldn't have such high hopes though, after reading the review that is posted on Amazon.com...

Not quite as endearing as his raw and seductive 2002 debut, O, the second full-length album by Irish troubadour Damien Rice finds him taking a more slapdash approach to his lyrics and arrangements, with balmy tracks like "Rootless Tree," "Coconut Skins," and "Me, My Yoke, and I" seemingly made up and recorded on the spot. Strange then that it took so long for 9 to actually arrive, with just a handful of odd collaborations (Tori Amos, Herbie Hancock) and one promising benefit single ("Unplayed Piano") to hold fans over during the four-year delay. Nothing here quite achieves the lush poetry on display there, although Rice and his singing companion Lisa Hannigan come close with the creepy opening track "9 Crimes" and the damaged whisper-to-a-scream ballad, "Elephant." --Aidin Vaziri

Ouch, that's not what I want to hear, but I loved O so much that I definitely thought it worth the risk to pre-order the album all the same. His inclusion of Lisa Hannigan again is definitely a plus, as I think her vocals to his songs take them from great to extraordinary.

• "9 Crimes" (link no longer available due to bandwidth issues)
• "Volcano"
• "The Professor"

Responsiveness

It's been too long and I apologize. EZarchive has been going through changes and I kept thinking things would be straightened out sooner than they were...but it does seem like they are now complete and we can go about our regular blogging, hallelujah!

I am currently in the middle of writing a thesis on care ethics. I've been writing about what we can define caring as and one ethicist (Daniel Engster) has said that the three values of caring are: attentiveness, responsiveness and respect. Something struck a cord with me when reading about responsiveness. To be responsive is to ask the person in need what it is that they need, how you can help, and what would be of most service to them. Often we say someone is very caring if they can predict what a person will need at a given time and can give it to them even without it being requested specifically. He talked about how someone can be giving but yet not responsive. This made me think about two songs that have no connection to each other at all other than I love them both and that they're both sung by women. All of the sudden I am reminded of two great songs that speak of being given something that they did not need or want. In the first case the song is about a relationship where the man is apparently always asking for things but rarely gives anything in return and it is apparent that he is not thinking responsively. In the second, a girl prays to God to send her a man, instead he moves the river for her...perhaps a larger and more impressive gift, but not what she wants or needs.

The first is Fisher's "Every Time"....
Thank you so much for
nothing I ever wanted
How did you know?
You must never listen.

The second is Belly's "Angel"...
Give it to me, please
I said to God.
It's only fair.
Instead, he sent three angels
To move the river,
So now it goes by my house.
Angel
I'd still rather have the man.


Fisher - "Every Time"
Belly - "Angel"