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Nov 10, 2014Rice hasn’t changed his sound much, but his writing is still every bit as visceral as it always has been, and his long-awaited third album, called My Favourite Faded Fantasy, absolutely lives up to the legacy of his previous work.
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Nov 7, 2014What makes this effort so different is its ability to transcend those mere qualitative descriptions and transport one’s mind to its most emotionally darkest corners--even if it has to clear away some of the cobwebs that we attempt to veil our pain in.
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Nov 5, 2014Everything sings here, no matter how dark the matter at hand.
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Nov 5, 2014The album flows as if it were a mixtape of Rice songs to a former lover.
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Nov 10, 2014Rice’s Fantasy, coproduced by Rick Rubin, is often dark and beautiful, featuring dramatic orchestrations, intricate arrangements, and hushed, swooning vocals.
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Nov 10, 2014My Favourite Faded Fantasy may come on as a bit underwhelming at first but that's the intent: it's not designed to grab, it's designed to soothe and then slowly worm its way into the subconscious, which is where these eight songs reveal themselves to be as strong as anything else Rice has written.
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Nov 10, 2014It may not be a barrel of laughs, but My Favourite Faded Fantasy proves that nobody does hushed introspection as well as Damien Rice.
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Nov 5, 2014He claims not to care whether his comeback is a commercial success, but one suspects it will be regardless. It deserves to be.
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Nov 5, 2014This record still feels raw, it still feels intimate, but a little more bold in its sentiments. It’s in those moments of bravery and risk that Rice still stands worthy of his heart-wrenching troubadour title.
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Nov 11, 2014While eight years could’ve brought about a jarring change, Rice has returned with eight satisfying, hearty tracks--albeit, nothing too far off his beaten path.
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Alternative PressNov 6, 2014As a whole, they don't quite match the melancholy majesty of his debut O, but moments do rival his best work. [Dec 2014, p.108]
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MojoNov 19, 2014The album's soft-haze strings are to die for, and the trad-sounding Trusty And True has admirable reach and dignity. [Dec 2014, p.100]
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Q MagazineNov 13, 2014Rice is much more appealing when he blatantly ramps up the theatre, sticks a bit of greasepaint over his sincerity, tips irreversibly into show business. [Dec 2014, p.114]
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Nov 10, 2014Bombast, buoyed by self-doubt, gets in the way of the finer sentiments, especially in the album's over-inflated middle. But subtle pleasures can still be found.
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Nov 13, 2014Where O was direct, raw and sober--cold and real in its confessional heartbreak--MFFF is aimlessly wistful and therefore more difficult to connect with.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 48
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Mixed: 4 out of 48
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Negative: 2 out of 48
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Nov 11, 2014This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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Nov 14, 2019
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Feb 2, 2018