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Not long ago I was asked to name one band that we haven’t heard from in quite some time that really needs to release an album in 2013 to stay relevant; my answer was Damien Rice. It’s been 6 years since the release of 9, an album that didn’t have nearly the impact on fans that O did. With the release of 9 also saw the splitting of Rice and Lisa Hannigan, both professionally and romantically. Rice stated in an interview with Hot Press that he “would give away all the music success, all the songs, and the whole experience to still have Lisa in his life”. I tend to think that the artistic type tend to take break ups a little harder than most. I’m not speculating that this is the reason that we haven’t heard from Rice since 2006 but I would put top dollar on that being a major factor in it. Evidence of this assumption was given last Sunday when Rice played an intimate show at Hotel Café in Hollywood to about 180 people where he featured three new songs that he describes as the various stages of breaking up.

Rice has always to the ability to truly tug at the listeners heartstrings and there was always an assumption that the emotional songs that he scribed were the results

of, often painful, life experiences but considering the above statement from Rice, these new songs take on a whole new meaning.

(via 24b)