DAMIEN RICE : MY FAVOURITE FADED FANTASY

1. My Favourite Faded Fantasy
2. It Takes a Lot to Know a Man
3. The Greatest Bastard
4. I Don't Want to Change You
5. Colour Me In
6. The Box
7. Trusty and True
8. Long Long Way

Label : Atlantic Records

Release Year : 2014

Length : 50:29

Review (AllMusic) : Damien Rice doesn't do anything in a hurry. He lets his songs unfold at a deliberate, almost stately pace and he's similarly unconcerned about rushing through his career, taking a full eight years to deliver 2014's My Favourite Faded Fantasy, which amounts to only his third record in 12 years. Other artists who have experienced a similarly long gestation period return with long, overblown works, but not Rice. He teamed with Rick Rubin, the Zen master of acoustic basics, to shape an exquisitely textured collection of eight songs that runs just a hair over 50 minutes (a simultaneously released deluxe edition contains just one bonus cut). Rice doesn't greatly expand his aesthetic - he's still equal parts Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke, cut with the sullen singer/songwriter sophistication of Nick Drake - but refinement is Rice's signature. He whittles away the excess in his words and melody, then dresses the detailed sculpture in finely tailored accouterments of slightly sighing strings, strummed guitars, and a hint of forward momentum lying within buried rhythms. This means My Favourite Faded Fantasy may come on as a bit underwhelming at first but that's the intent: it's not designed to grab, it's designed to soothe and then slowly worm its way into the subconscious, which is where these eight songs reveal themselves to be as strong as anything else Rice has written.

Review (Humo) : Ik hoorde Damien Rice voor het eerst op de tourbus van Scala. Niet toevallig waren die meisjes er snel bij om 'm te ontdekken, te omhelzen en te coveren. Het is, for better or for worse, het imago van Rice: lieve kleine kwetsbare pure liedjes voor gevoelige meisjes. Vandaar ook het Rice-bashen op het net, ik wed door pseudostoere jongens, vaak laf onder een nickname. My Favourite Faded Fantasy 1234 Een origineel uniek genie is Rice niet, als hij wil ontroeren klinkt hij iets te vaak als tweederangs Radiohead (hij coverde trouwens 'Creep') en als hij wil rocken klinkt hij soms als derderangs U2 (hij coverde ook 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'). Maar zijn stijl is wel eigenzinnig en bijwijlen indrukwekkend. Zijn nieuwe worp, de eerste in acht jaar, getuigt van een grotere visie, een grotere ambitie en een groter budget dan voorheen. En hij neemt z'n tijd: de epische titeltrack duurt zes minuten, en 'It Takes a Lot to Know a Man' bewijst die stelling in negen (9!) volle minuten. Je kan zeggen dat deze hele plaat verstild en ontroerend is, en je kan zeggen dat ze alweer sentimenteel en soms bombastisch is - beide statements zijn waar. En Rice is een middelmatig zanger, maar dat vangt hij slim en genereus op door mooie (in alle betekenissen van dat woord) vrouwen uit te nodigen. Je hebt er die principieel neerkijken op Damien Rice omdat hij sentimenteel en kwetsbaar is, en ongetwijfeld ook omdat ze het niet kunnen uitstaan dat hij met z'n warhoofd (binnen- én buitenkant) toch veel succes heeft bij de vrouwen. Maar wij vinden dat hij een kleur apart is, en af en toe ook een klasse apart.

Review (Relevant Magazine) : The ghost of Jeff Buckley haunts parts of Damien Rice's My Favourite Faded Fantasy. The opening notes of the album's title track glimmer from Rice's electric guitar as his falsetto, barely more than a whisper, reminds you why Rice is one of music's most dramatic artists. Eight years since his last new album, Rice shows us why there are few peers who can match his cynicism-free blend of folk, rock 'n roll and drama. Like Buckley, though he's got the style of a modern singer/songwriter, he's the got the soul of an opera performer. It's hard to listen to the latest effort from Rice, releasing more than a decade after his debut masterpiece O and eight years since his last effort 9, and not think of Buckley. Like the late phenom (whose opus Grace dropped in 1993), Rice occupies an era of pop music more often concerned with irony or sonic indulgence than unguarded sincerity. But with orchestration, Rick Rubin production, masterful guitar work and dreamscape slow builds, Rice has never fit easily into a specific pop music era. He's his own genre. Also like Buckley, Rice isn't overly concerned with the pop music form. Though it's just eight songs, My Favourite Faded Fantasy contains 50 minutes of music, with every song but one clocking in at over five minutes. These aren't radio singles. These are slowly developing, swooning poems that find themselves as they come to life. My Favourite Faded Fantasy's first three tracks seem to relish in watching a song being born, grow and come to life with quiet intros, slow builds and dramatic crescendos. The album hits its stride at "I Don't Want to Change You," abandoning some of the first tracks' electric ambition. It's a soulful, folky tune with one of the record's most catchy choruses: Oh and I don't want to change you / I don't want to change you / I don't want to change your mind / I just came across an angel / Out among the danger / Somewhere in a strangers' eyes. Similarly to the album's closer, "Long Long Way," "Colour Me In" follows the O and 9 formula with similarly compelling results: The songs starts slowly with just whispering vocals and an acoustic guitar until droning strings turn the line Come let me love you into a swaying sort of anthem. "The Box" revisits the beginning of the album's anxious energy, but it gives way to the breezy "Trusty and True," probably the most accessible track on the album. Though the record as a whole-like much of Rice's catalogue (and Buckley's Grace)-finds its beauty in melancholy, songs like "Trusty and True" are a reminder of the threads of hope that string his albums together. Instead of a string-fueled climax, "Trusty and True" breaks into a full fledge sing-along: Come / Come alone / Come with friends / Come with foes / Come however you are / Just Come / Come alone / Come with me and let go / Come however you are / Just come / Come alone / Come so carefully close / Come however you are / Just come It turns out to be pretty great advice.