Damien Rice – The Greatest Bastard
SoundCloud
For many (myself included) the idea of another album from Irish troubadour Damien Rice ever seeing the light of day was itself a faded fantasy. In the nine years following the release of his last outing, 9, Rice had become a recluse both personally and creatively. After nearly a decade in hibernation, the singer/songwriter has returned in triumphant fashion.
Rice has never been estranged from the idea of bearing his soul through song — in many ways his first two albums were a collection of disenchanted fables whose roots were buried deep within real sorrow. However on his returning venture, honesty outweighs whimsy. While it’s perhaps not as roughly poetic or as loveably rustic as its predecessors, My Favourite Faded Fantasy is most certainly a powerful memoir that is both brutally honest and poignant at times. It is very much an album that orbits its creator. His past, his memories, his mistakes and his experiences are painted across an eight track canvas and portrayed with a sense of selfishness, sorrow, clarity, arrogance and regret.
Lyrically “The Greatest Bastard” is the finest example of his dissection — the words within this song might be the most earnest and raw he’s ever written. When you hear his voice arc up towards “I never meant to let you down,” it’s hard not to connect the song with former collaborator and girlfriend, Lisa Hannigan. This is the first body of work from Rice not to feature her input. Although the alchemy they created together is definitely missed, when you take into consideration what’s being said on this record it becomes apparent that this was something he had to do by himself.
Musically the record hits a number of familiar territories such as tender piano work, stark acoustic picking and bittersweet string work. The main difference here is that everything sounds bolder than before. There’s a lot more layers to be found, crescendos are built up with more ferocity and the overall framework of the album has a lot more weight behind it. Furthermore it greatly matches the changing tone, mood and scale of emotion throughout. From the melancholic introspection that occurs in the title track to the uplifting readjustment of “Trusty and True”, the musical climate adapts to the emotion behind the songwriting. In all aspects, My Favourite Faded Fantasy isn’t so much a return to form as it is a more mature and fully-fleshed endeavor that moves beyond the realm of delicate songwriting and into something more substantial. If the rumors of another album next year are true, then this could very well be the start of a very prosperous second chapter in the delayed career of Damien Rice.
