Canter Bridge

This stunning Damien Rice offering is by turns imperfect, soulish, quirky, self-absorbed, and fantastic.

Rice’s persuasive voice is complemented with uncommon tact by gorgeous female accompaniment. Though it never ceases to be a Damien Rice album, Lisa Hannigan and her friends are so good that they play a solid supporting role without which Rice would not be what he is. Almost the same can be said of the understated but skillful acoustic guitar that encircles Rice’s voice throughout O‘s tenspot of tracks.

One cannot escape the notion that there was some enjoying of wine as this album was perceived and executed and that it is best enjoyed beside a bottle of something red. The image, at the least, gets at the tone and substance of his artistry and the soft-ish reflection that his songs embody.

Among the album’s many fine tracks, one deserves special mention: `Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You’ is an exquisite restatement of an old tune, masterfully accomplished in the way that remakes too often are not.

This album came to this reviewer from his son as a Christmas gift. I was unfamiliar with Damien Rice. On the strengths of this album, that will change.