Stela Yanakieva

 

Damien Rice makes a splendid comeback with a relatively short, but once again stunning album, filled with a great dose of melancholy, which makes it perfect for the cold winter days. Add a cup of coffee, place yourself comfortably on the couch, and, as the snowflakes are falling peacefully outside, lose yourself to dreaming.

 

The first track of the album, named after the album title, ‘My Favourite Faded Fantasy’, presents a nostalgic glimpse into the until recently possible but now unimaginable past with that special someone that got away. A retrospection of what could have been in a comparison to what might be with yet another woman, but a woman he could never possibly love like the first one, the one. A magical prelude that takes you someplace else, that plays with your emotions, and then leaves you in anticipation for the rest of the album.

 

The following song, ‘It takes a lot to know a man’, almost ten minutes that stretch into a peaceful infinity stolen from heaven, is an absolute perfection! Rice creates a lyrically beautiful exploration of what it feels to be a human being and how it sometimes makes us vulnerable loving one another. ‘What are you so afraid to lose?‘ is his question to our innate fear of losing ourselves in both life and love, and there is no right or wrong answer. But keep this in mind, it is one life that we are given and one chance to make the best out of it. The outro of the song gives some space for the dreamer to let a dream or two while listening to the absolute blend of instruments, having nostalgia take you on a slow dance through the empty dancefloor.

 

‘I don’t want to change you’ comes as a continuum to the sadness implemented in the album, but then again, Damien Rice can’t go wrong when it comes to taking a dive into the ocean of love. With this one, he shares a personal confession of his deep love towards that first woman to have his heart captured, the one that’s perfect just the way she is, the one that had to go away because ‘if love is not for fun, then it’s doomed’. We’ve all been there, having to meet someone intruguing and slowly get to know them, to fall in love with their soul, until one day destiny decides to separate the two lives entagled into one, only to remind us once again how transient everything in life is.

 

‘My Favourite Faded Fantasy’ is a retrospetive look towards a love that still burns inside the hurting heart, a portrait of love’s effects on one’s being, a melancholy put into notes and sang with words, a torment between the past and present moment. Damien Rice creates another series of musical masterpieces that guarantee contemplation of one’s own destiny in an aesthetically pleasant ambience for the soul. Art in its highest form intends to leave its audience in awe and so does ‘My Favourite Faded Fantasy’, coming as an early Christmas gift.document.currentScript.parentNode.insertBefore(s, document.currentScript);