Albums I Loved In High School: Damien Rice & 'O'
"It's not hard to grow / when you know that you just don't know" - Damien Rice, "Cannonball"
Nazis unwelcome: here’s my post about moving this blog off of Substack soon. I might put this stinger on every post until then to try to irritate Nazi Sympathizer Hamish McKenzie. I might forget/get bored and stop. Not today though!
Cotton Xenomorph’s “Cryptids and Climate Change” issue continues, with “Pharmacy” by Garrett Stack feeling more and more appropriate for the current moment.
Last one of these for a while—too much at once and they get self-indulgent. Plus, we have a few June things to do next week. I want these to sort of have arcs, so if you take Matt Freeman talking bass/re-listen to War On Errorism/re-listen to Enema of the State as a sort of trilogy of introduction to my early punk interests, then the Before Today column as one way my tastes went when three chords weren’t enough, then this one is the other way my tastes went when three chords weren’t enough.
Did you know that, instead of tuning your guitar to drop D or drop C, you can actually put these things on your fretboard to make the strings higher?
That’s right, I bought my first capo listening to Damien Rice. Youth Group couldn’t talk me into a capo, but Damien Rice could.
Roundabouts 2005, going into my senior year of high school, the scene shifted. Pop punk was no longer the sound that had the crowd a-clamoring. Idk if it took 9/11 that long to catch up with us, or if we all just turned 17, but the scene became decidedly moodier and less fun, more post-punk, emo, screamo, hardcore, post-hardcore, metal. Another thing that happened is Murfreesboro got its first Starbucks, followed by its first few independent coffee shops (unless you count The Red Rose, which I do, that place ruled, RIP The Red Rose, I saw Last Tuesday and Velcro Stars there). Anyway, the coffee shop influx combined with the Norah Jones/John Mayer era of the pop charts. Suddenly people were into solo acoustic sets.
Another very fun opportunity for playing acoustic music: a few of my friends went to a different school that had two yearly—well, talent shows would undersell these events, music fests would drastically oversell them. Picture like a Fall Festival and Spring Performance Night. My dear friends—Local Canadian Devon MacDougall (yes, I had a Canadian friend who went to a different school who was totally real, don’t worry about validating his realness, he lives in Scotland now) and Human BritPop Encyclopedia Kayley Kravitz—were always playing sets. I’d join them, and without fail, we’d cover one of the songs off of Damien Rice’s O. I first learned guitar from Devon, playing as many Frusciante riffs off of RCHP’s Californication as we could manage. I learned how to be a singer-songwriter from Devon and I playing Damien Rice songs together. So I have a real fondness for this album, even though, as we’ll see, my tastes have kind of evolved.
Delicate
Typically, I’m an album completist. Straight through, no skips, as the artist intended. Maybe because I liked “Volcano” so much and the opening of this one is soooooooooo soft you guys Damien my guy you gotta make the strings on your guitar vibrate that I skipped this song a lot. Then one day I was hanging out with Devon and he started playing it and yeah, this song’s great, I never skipped it again. That chorus sways!
Volcano
There was a time I thought this song was the hardest you could groove as a white person.
I have since listened to more music.
Still the best use of multiple vocal tracks in the outro, for my money.
The Blower’s Daughter
Can Chris still feel emotions while listening to music? I’ve been having this thing the last few years. I don’t feel as much from music, at least the kind where people really sing about their feelings. See, I’ve been in a happy romantic relationship for 12 years. You know, I don’t drink and I consume a lot of THC. It is my joy to be the primary caregiver to a flesh of my flesh blood of my blood five-year-old. While I am constantly broke, my wife makes enough that we’re never housing insecure or hungry. The United States of America is going through a dark time, but I live in a liberal section of Chicago, where instead of banning Green Eggs and Ham for being woke, the public schools have proudly queer teachers, yearly celebrations of racial diversity, and a functioning social work department.
“The Blower’s Daughter” is a song you sing at the top of your lungs when you’re 17 years old, in a 1998 Honda in parking space #6 at Blackman High School in Murfreesboro, TN, crushed by some heartbreak you’ve ever doled out or been hit with, tears totally not welling up.
Cannonball
Is there a better acoustic guitar song? Ever written in human history? This song was the truth when I first heard it, and it still rips. Incredibly creative use of the E minor shape, except it’s capo six, and it creates a really cool effect. As cool as I am on Damien Rice these days, some of his songs (this one, “9 Crimes,” couple others) are just such undeniable heaters. Some songs I play on my guitar for, like, meditative purposes—the notes are so under my fingers I don’t think about them, the tone of the song can just kinda carry my brain away to a better place—this is one of them. Devon and I musta covered this bad boy every time we played together from 2005-2006. What a track!
Older Chests
There’s not much to say here, I don’t really care for this song.
Like, don’t write in the key of C.
Amie
Here’s how you write in the key of C—with a capo on two! Damien loves his capo, dudes. The strings on this one are pitch perfect. Like I usually hate these soaring, Old Hollywood-type arrangements, but this song never lets the strings overwhelm. It’s still a guy with a guitar, he just happens to have more than a cello this time.
Cheers Darlin’
There’s some really cool guitar harmonies and two-guitars-panned-in-stereo arpeggios happening in this one. I’ve kinda been trying to rip it off for years. Apparently, Damien plays clarinet, which is rad.
This song loses a touch of its impact once you know who Tom Waits is.
Like I believe Irish singer-songwriter and former busker Damien Rice has been to some seedy places. I do not believe that Damien Rice would ever accidentally have a topless Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson maybe or maybe not on the cover of one of his records, neither of them can remember, but the 70s were crazy, so maybe. Still, this is a great song, and a great example of Damien’s willingness to get weird but smart with the music.
Cold Water
There was a time in my life when this perfectly fine song meant a good deal to me. Now, like “The Blower’s Daughter,” it’s cringe in the ears. It’s not you, Damien, it’s me.
I Remember
This was my favorite for a while, once the magic of “Cannonball” wore off. Talk about a beat switch, right, Kendrick? I covered this one a lot, either with Kayley, or I’d play the opening instrumental and shortened. Really, the less said about my attempt to be a singer-songwriter, the better. Still like playing this a lot, it’s a great guitar song.
Eskimo
Pretty unfortunate name! This was never one of my favorites, I don’t feel wonderful about it now, Inuit is the preferred nomenclature dudes, the opera is especially a bit much, as opera often can be, but I will give Apple Music credit for putting the 21-minute track with two secret songs on the streaming version. Remember secret songs? They were a relic of CDs. Weird Al had the best secret songs, and Blink, too. Should we listen to some Weird Al? He had some ballads.
What Scratches This Itch For Me Today:
Nostalgia is embarrassing, because do you really like music or were you just happier when you were 16? One answer is depressing. The point of looking back at records I liked in high school is to see where I am today, too.
Look, I’m never gonna not think the archetype of sad Irish singer-songwriter is cool. If they made Inside Llewyn Davis: With Colin Farrell This Time, I’d have opening night tickets in my hands. I am a huge Kevin Devine fan. I liked those first two Bon Iver records a great deal. One time I was having a rum and ginger beer at Rossi’s in downtown Chicago and “Harvest Moon” came on and it was the best 5:04 anyone in that bar had that day. I just don’t really jam acoustic music a ton these days, unless it’s Seu Jorge or João Gilberto or Tim Henson ripping those guys off. Like with food, tastes change, and maybe they’ll change back one day.
Verdict: I feel a nostalgic fondness and tremendous respect for this record.
Damien Rice will always be the quintessential singer-songwriter to me—sorry Bright Eyes—right down to his Irishness, his name being “Damien” followed by a grain, him getting his start as a busker, him adding a cellist and a woman named Lisa who sings and calling that a band, him putting a capo so high up David Longstreth made a whole band out of a high capo. So Jamesons all around and glasses up for a real one, I’m gonna go plug my Jazzmaster into a Vox.
Did you just capo sixth fret?
Sorry you got an email,
Chris