My Favourite Faded Fantasy
Damian Rice
Atlantic
3 Stars
The brooding Irish singer-songwriter may have returned after an eight year absence, but it’s not like he totally disappeared. During the interval American television producers pillaged the singer’s two albums with a plethora of tracks appearing in over 20 dramas, not to mention some of his low key ditties being sung by American idol contestants.
Musically, the album is not a grand departure from the emotionally tumultuous terrain of 2002's O and 2006's 9, however, there is a somewhat sharper focus to the eight songs with Rice's aching tenor sounding better than ever. It Take A Lot to Know A Man rides on a gentle barroom piano and cinematic strings. The soulful I Don't Want to Change You is sublime; resembling a short-film, it emerges with an orchestral flourish before settling into Rice's trademark sound of warm acoustic guitar and mournful violin.
The album seriously lags towards the end, however, courtesy of the final two tracks taking up 15 minutes of the album; the most weary of the bunch is Trusted and True, an absolute slog with its cathartic chorale finale arriving too late.
