Damien Rice found success on his own terms through miles of mountains in the colder water of this cathartic cannonball. 'O' began as some demos until Rice was able to get some proper recording equipment through his second cousin David Arnold. Rice says: "We recorded all over the place. Which I liked: I was really particular at the time about where to record things. Like, I knew I wanted to record Eskimo in my friends' apartment in Paris because they loved the song so much. So I took my little mobile studio and went to Paris. I went through the metro with all of these microphone stands hanging off me and recording gear, sweating by the time I got to their house, and just recorded it there, and then came home. So it was recorded in lots of bits and places, but basically houses, places I was living or friend's houses. Dublin, mostly".
'O' features Damien Rice on vocals, piano, guitar, percussion, clarinet, and production; Lisa Hannigan on backing vocals, lead vocals on "Silent Night", and piano; Vyvienne Long on cello; Mark Kelly on electric guitar, and production; Shane Fitzsimons on bass guitar; Tom Osander aka Tomo on percussion and drums; Caroline "Caz" Fogerty on djembe; Doreen Curran on mezzo soprano vocals on "Eskimo"; Nicholas Dodd on conducting; Colm Mac Con Iomaire on violin; Conor Donovan on timpani and percussion; and Jean Meunier on improvisation and piano.
Rice released 'O' independently on his own label DRM and it debuted at number seven on the Irish album chart. It reached the top ten in Norway and the UK and peaked at number two in Ireland, where it has been certified platinum ten times over. In the US, it has been certified gold, despite only charting at number one hundred and fourteen.
http://www.damienrice.com/
"The Blower's Daughter"
"Volcano"
'O'
full album:
All songs written and composed by Damien Rice.
01. "Delicate" - 0:00
02. "Volcano" - 5:10
03. "The Blower's Daughter" - 9:48
04. "Cannonball" - 14:33
05. "Older Chests" - 19:42
06. "Amie" - 24:27
07. "Cheers Darlin'" - 29:03
08. "Cold Water" - 34:53
09. "I Remember" - 39:51
10. "Eskimo" - 45:23
11. "Prague" - 52:28
12. "Silent Night" - 59:30
