Damien Rice and Trail of Dead reviewed

Damien Rice 9

Damien Rice's follow-up to the outstanding O, is unsurprisingly disappointing, but still has its strong points.

Somehow, Damien Rice created the longest three-year wait for fans and critics who wanted more after hearing Rice's debut album O-- easily one of, if not the best album of 2003. Unfortunately, Rice does suffer the notorious sophomore slump. While the first two songs are absolutely gorgeous, especially with the heavenly strings on "The Animals Were Gone," there are too many songs on this album that lack any sort of artistic progression from O and, at times, feel like b-sides. While "Elephant" brings the prototypical heartwrenching storytelling that can be expected from Rice, it is little more than a rehash of "The Blower's Daughter Part 2." "Rootless Tree," despite its intentions, has little to offer with Rice's melodramatic curse-ridden chorus. There are other highlights though, most notably "Grey Room" and "Accidental Babies," but the problem with this album (like all other sophomore slumps) is that it is too similar to his debut, and as such the songs are automatically are going to be compared. As such, this album is the weaker effort of the two, and while that may not serve as a fair comparison (a nearly perfect album to a simply good album), there's very little way of getting around it.

Overall Rating: 82

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead So Divided

A tad all over the place, but still thoroughly enjoyable

Trail of Dead's follow up to their lukewarm Let It Dive, is an interesting experience to say the least. A much sleeker production has erased much of the excess noise (for better or worse) that was on their earlier albums, and to replace that is a new level of strangeness that hasn't been seen from these guys since their debut album. Sometimes it works, and when it does, it works really well like on "Stand in Silence" and "Naked Sun." However there are moments like "Life" where a seemingly well-executed song (at least in concept) appears to lose it's way, meander, trudge, and meander some more before finally ending. That being said though, I do give them credit for pushing boundaries, if nothing else. Also, it isn't readily apparent that the band is trying too hard either, so none of the songs feel trite or forced. All in all, this is a very strong effort, that at times equals Source Tags and Codes, but the moments where the album indulges a bit too much drag down the overall experience.


Overall Rating: 88