Album Review

Damien Rice – Dogs

• 20th Oct 2007

Before there was James Blunt there was Damien Rice.

And lo! Captain Blunt did have a hit with “Thou Art Beautiful” and it did catapult him from soulful acoustic songsmith to pop hearthrob.
He experienced great wealth and popular acclaim but alas! The Lords of radio did overplay his hit, turning it into a karaoke favourite akin to Robbie Williams’ “Angels”.

And people did tire of his voice and his song and he was deemed to be shit.

But verily, verily I say unto thee, Damien Rice of the Emerald Isle did not stray from his chosen path. He enjoyed the blessings of lo-fi simplicity and songs of startling beauty. He resisted the temptation to turn his emotive meaningful music into a pop song.

He continues along this narrow and strait way with “Dogs”, a simple love song in which the listener can almost smell the orange blossom of which he sings.

A string quartet slopes melodically around the vocal proving the soundtrack for the meditations of: “the girl who does yoga.”

The moral of this parable?
Choose beauty before popularity.
Here endeth the lesson.