Rice’s magnetic sounds worth a listen

Sometimes people get together, decide to play music, produce an album, and the end product is something so miraculous as to make you think twice about whether all things really do happen for a reaso; that there truly is no such thing as a coincidence.

That was one of my first thoughts when I heard “Damien Rice Live From the Union Chapel.” With Damien Rice on guitar and vocals, Lisa Hannigan backing Damien on vocals and Vyvienne Long on cello, we get to experience a rare kind of lovely chemistry you can only usually just hope for in an album purchase. I was definitely not disappointed this time.

The album opens with a cheering crowd, an acoustic guitar and a cello. Rice quietly chants a sad melody, slowly building it to epoch proportions until he’s almost screaming with Hannigan chanting not words, just sounds, a wail, or something a little more victorious, or maybe just the last bit of fight before a defeat. Damien sings: “Why’d you sing hallelujah if it means nothin’ to ya? Why’d you sing with me at all?” It gets quiet again, signifying the defeat, until, of course, the applause. It’s a live album after all, and you come back to reality and realize it was just another song. The song is called “Delicate.”

Lisa Hannigan sings in the kind of beautiful that makes it hurt every time she utters a syllable, yet you’ll be wanting more just the same. On “Then Go,” she is featured as the lead vocalist singing: “I get the feeling you’re bored with me, not through habit or frequency. Did your mother have it easily? If there’s some place you’d rather be … then go.”

Check out a sample of this fantastic live experience by going to www.damienrice.com.

Josh Cole is a local musician and CD connoisseur. For a possible review of a new release, e-mail Cole at lettersfromthevoid@yahoo.com or at Myspace.com/familiarwalls.