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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
9
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Heffa / Vector
Release Date: 14 November 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Singer-Songwriter, Rock, Folk, Adult Alternative
Summary
The Irish singer-songwriter returns with a second album.
Also By This Artist: O
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
musicOMH.com
Overall, Rice has produced a release which equals and perhaps even surpasses his debut, a album that takes you through emotional highs and lows you are unlikely to hear anywhere else this winter.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
There are not as many revelations as on Rice's acclaimed 2002 debut, "O," but it still can be sonically thrilling.
Read Full Review >Blender
Even when he tips the sensitivity scales too much... Rice’s innate, anti-lite-FM intensity saves him.
Read Full Review >Uncut
A delicate and sometimes bleak record. [Dec 2006, p.123]
Q Magazine
9 may be quiet, but it is never easy listening. [Dec 2006, p.125]
Mojo
Rice doesn't dismiss outright the folky troubadour charm that distinguished O, but here it's a springboard for jealousy, sex, misery. [Dec 2006, p.104]
Spin
Rice seeks 24/7 momentousness here. [Jan 2007, p.92]
Lost At Sea
An album to which listening compares to watching The Break-up or The Last Kiss.
Read Full Review >The Phoenix
He avoids being too folksy or slipping into an acoustic coma by layering percussion, electric guitars, and strings when needed. By the end, you’ll feel you’ve been through the same wringer.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
He rocks more often and more bombastically, but he still writes few song-songs of the kind that anyone with a guitar could stand on stage and interpret. This music needs Rice's rangy voice and desperate theatricality to work.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Rice stands apart from the pack because of the genuine beauty and eccentricity of his tunes.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
There are still enough swelling, string-laden climaxes, crisscrossing vocal lines, and cascading symphonies of voices to keep fans of O happy, but the album is significantly less unified.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
9 is by no means a failure, or even bad, but it dulls in comparison to what Rice can really produce, which makes it disappointing overall.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
While O floated along pretty much at one consistently delicate pace, 9 finds Rice exploring a wider range of musical expression. [#16, p.97]
Paste Magazine
While not as panoramic or varied as its predecessor, 9 is marked by a similar mix of poised control and impulsive gestures backed by dramatically arranged, lyrical instrumentation. [Dec 2006, p.92]
Billboard
It is simply miserable, heavy, repetitive and cathartic. [18 Nov 2006]
Rolling Stone
The tortured melancholy bit -- part of it, anyway -- takes a back seat on the follow-up to this Irish bard's well-loved 2003 debut.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
As it was on 2003's O, Damien Rice's songs are so naked emotionally that even listening is akin to eavesdropping on a bad breakup.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
"9" picks up where the ubiquitous and two-million selling "O" left off. Hoarse howling to acoustic guitar strumming; folksy plucking to bleeding heart mutterings; Radiohead-a-like moments pull of portentous, look-at-me pauses and full band crescendos.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
He quivers, moans and pleads in obsessive contemplation of the darling departed in a self-dramatising simulation of catharsis that wrings from his performances an ocean of emotion when a drop of understated restraint would prove more telling.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
"9"... has a confused feel: he simultaneously glosses up the production, tries too hard to seem edgy, then compares women to sandy shores and the morning sun like an adult-contemporary sap. [20 Nov 2006]
New Musical Express
He's terribly earnest. [4 Nov 2006, p.35]
PopMatters
Not all of 9 is obnoxious, though. Much of it is merely boring; the unmemorable tunes failing to elevate beyond everyday, coffee house, bland competency.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
The biggest problem might be Rice’s vocal technique. On O, he had a tendency to endearingly strain for notes he couldn’t reach. Now, it sounds like he’s purposefully written songs to allow him to overextend his thin voice.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Whenever Rice risks truly touching us emotionally-- say, when he's asking a former lover, "Do you brush your teeth before you kiss?" on "Accidental Babies"-- he undercuts himself with go-nowhere melodies and formulaic arrangements.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Carly H. gave it a10:
Pitchfork, i read your review, it was RETARDED. You have no REAL reasons behind hating this album. I hate you, pitchfork.
Adam P. gave it a10:
I heard of good music but this is a diffrent level. It arouses more feeling than poetry but tells the story better. Says it as it Is. Elephants was sensional
david m gave it a10:
A quiet distrubing and challenging record. The album is sometimes too extreme for the general listener, but it's a gold mine of emotion when you're ready for it.
Terrell W gave it a9:
This is one of my favorite albums. Don't listen to stupid pitchfork damien is a great song writer and i truly love this album. Coconut skins and Me, My Yoke and I are incredible tracks. 1.9 ha!
Carly gave it a10:
amazingly beautiful. not as good as O but just about there.
Patrick C gave it a5:
I am a Damien Rice fan, but this is a mentally draining album that I couldn't listen to twice in one week. Disappointing
Keiith G gave it a7:
I truly wanted to love this, but couldn't bring myself to get past the album's many shortcomings.
