Yes, that's him

When his single The Blowers Daughter hit my ears at the end of movie Closer, the melancholic feeling I had about the movie was relieved delicately. And it was not my habit to read credits at the end of movies until I heard this song in Closer. After acknowledging that Closer is his single, it didn't come to my surprise that Cold Water rendered in the middle of the movie is also his song.

I don't wanna post an entry about Damien Rice's biography. All I want to say is how this brilliant and exuberant singer (from my paucity of art sensibility) inveigles my quest of searching the art

side inside of me. Being sentimental (yes! I admit it Gamat!), I don't care whatever people would say about my choice of music. It doesn't mean that I hate those people who favor music genres that are not in my list. Too ballad? Yes, that's how I explore myself. And thank you to Damien Rice for enlightening my exploration.

Critics claim that Damien's music is too depressing and melancholic, which could bring down listeners' emotion. Damien, himself, admitted in Live at Fingerprints: Warts and All (before performing Grey Room)that he wrote all the songs in his new album, with the state of being down or depressing, that eventually let him out from being too much out of control. That's Damien's trademark. If I would listen to him in different subject and same angle of music, he would not be in my 'A' list singer. These are the traits shared by arts (in whatever kind of performances - poetry, novel, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, theatre, etc):-

- Art is artificial, that is, art is made rather than natural (hard to embrace at the 1st time, but ponder for while, that's true)
- Art exists for itself, not needing practical use in real life
- Art is self-aware
- Art produces a certain kind of response - an aesthetics response- in the audience.

Damien's music taught me the last trait
- Art produces a certain kind of response - an aesthetics response- in the audience. Again, the exact meaning of aesthetic response has been debated endlessly, but I have to agree that it includes an appreciation of beauty and some understanding that goes beyond the merely intellectual or the merely entertaining. Just peruse for a while these extracts from lyrics wrote by him, and guess what, they are so much more beautiful with witty and eccentric music arrangement;

" And so it is

Just like you said it should be

We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is
The colder water
The blower's daughter
The pupil in denial"

-The Blowers Daughter

"Nothing unusual, nothing strange
Close to nothing at all
The same old scenario, the same old rain
And there's no explosions here
Then something unusual, something strange
Comes from nothing at all
I saw a spaceship fly by your window
Did you see it disappear?"

- Amie

" What am I darlin'?
A whisper in your ear?

A piece of your cake?

What am I, darlin?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?"

- Cheers Darlin'

" And when you think you've sinned
Do you fall upon your knees?
And do you sit within your picture?
Do you still forget the breeze?"

- Elephant

" Have I still got you to be my open door
Have I still got you to be my sandy shore
Have I still got you to cross my bridge in this storm
Have I still got you to keep me warm"

- Grey Room

" And we use cushions to cover
Happy glands
In the mild issue of our disgrace

Our minds pressed and guarded

While our flesh disregarded
The lack of space for the light-hearted
In the boom that beats our drum"

- Accidental Babies

These are are few songs that left me breathless, the first time I listened to. They NEVER put me into a depressing mode, instead shining the beauty of arts that I have in my mind.