Damien Rice - B-sides - A Review

When do you think an artiste should release a B-sides album?

Going by the usual norms and of course, wiki, it is mostly when
A) An artiste wants to release an alternative version to the popular tracks of their A-side album – Remember the Michael Kamen & San Francisco Symphony backed version of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and other tracks of theirs in their S & M album
B) He/she/they can’t fit in a few tracks because …well… they just don’t fit!! Stylistically, conceptually, thematically …Whatever be the reason, they just don’t go with the other tracks in the album
C) The tracks are just plain not good enough to be part of a full length album. Sure, at some point of time, when you garner some amount of fame and fan following – you can release these tracks as part of a rarities collection and get away with it.

Now to my second question, is there a right time to bring out a B-side album? In the sense.. at what point of time in the career of an artiste should he/she/they bring out an album?

I do believe that a whole lot of time should be spent in putting together a B-side album. If strategically placed, positioned and produced, it can work wonders for an artiste. Having said that, this aspect is nowhere as relevant as the quality of tracks which is going to constitute to the B-side album. Case in point – Gloria Gaynor ‘s breakaway disco hit – ‘I will survive’ – was originally a B-side to the supposedly ‘radio-friendly’ A-side song called Substitute. We all know what became of that!

So going by this logic, is it justified that one of the most promising singer/song-writers and one of the most haunting voices to reckon with in the recent times , releases a B-side before he brings out a much anticipated sequel to his sensational debut album? Or is it just a ploy to keep his legion of astounded critics and rapidly growing fan base at check so that he can buy time to follow-up the tall order that he has set? Or much much worse….is he just a one hit wonder?

Yes, folks, I am talking about Damien Rice. His debut album “O” has brought even me, who is a couple of decades behind in her folk singing music, to her feet. It brought with it a lot of hope regarding the music of the current era. His songwriting style was intensely personal and hence emotional and his voice incredibly raw, impeccably honest and extraordinarily powerful. A popmatters review says this about Rice’s first album –

“O was a triumph of the songwriter's craft, and anyone who found themselves lost in the tumult of a failing relationship last year, locked indoors with O on repeat for an endless successions of days, will likely side with me on this. O took an eternal and over-burdened theme -- love gone sour -- and made of it something fresh, something at once pared-down, simple, and yet emotionally complex. With this work, Rice added a page to the catalogue of romantic despair, creating a new, present-day Blue.”

A present day Blue? Now, normally I would have cringed at a comparison like that. But I am totally smitten by this man's music….and how! If you haven’t checked out “O”, please do so. It is my most humble and ardent plea! Please!

Now – coming to his second album – B-sides. Well, the good part first – I do believe there are traces of the emotional upheaval that he inspires due to his expressive voice. The opening track “ The Professor and La Fille Danse” has flashes of his angst-infused brilliance and but overall, it still lacks a grasping force, which I have come to expect out of any of Rice’s works. His song-writing luster suffers a setback a great bit here and gets worse through the course of the album. This song is devoid of Lisa Hannigan’s backings, but does have some random scatting and French verses which I tried to decipher with my rusted high school French, but in vain. The original demo of "Lonelily", which ensues, does not any real energy, unlike the next track, the live and unplugged version of “Woman Like a Man”. But for me, trying to express the rage and resentment theme through coarse language did not work for me. It is almost as if he wanted to keep the anger factor making up for a really crappy track. "Moody Monday" is off-beat in a reflective sort of way and might be worth a few rounds of listen. What then follows are four alternative versions of his A-side tracks – A live version of “Delicate”, an instrumental rendition of “Volcano” trailed by an original demo of the song, before ending with a remix of “Cannonball”. All of these are not distinctly different from their excellent “O” versions – and on an average, not worth album space. Out of this, the 97 demo of ‘Volcano' probably qualifies as my favorite piece of their otherwise very ordinary and quite avoidable album. Now, whether this version appeals to me because of the familiarity aspect (considering I have played it umpteen times as part of “O”) or whether it , any which ways, has that magnetically alluring pull – I do not know. But the delicately emotional overture of the song and the unabatedly evident flair of the songwriter is very stark in this track. And somehow this feeling is the biggest takeaway from the album, as far as I am concerned. It somehow leaves me with something to hold onto – something that reassures me that such not so easily found brilliance cannot die a quick death – something that makes me hopeful for his next release.

Half of the album dedicated to not-so-mentionable b-sides and the other half to even less mentionable different versions of original tracks - It is no rocket science that this is not a recipe of a sure shot record success. I would have rather waited for a half a dozen years before his next album – than having to be exposed to the commonplace compositions of a potentially great musician.