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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
one of Ireland's best kept secrets....., 25 Jul 2003
Most of you probably haven't heard of Bell X1 before, so before we get to the album itself, a quick potted history: once upon a time there was juniper, and juniper were good. Unfortunately there was a split and Damien Rice went solo. Paul Noonan emerged from behind the drumkit to take over vocal duties (don't worry, not at all like Phil Collins), and Bell X1 were born. This is actually their second album, but their first with Island.Whilst the debut album ‘Neither am I’ had some fine moments, it didn’t function as a cohesive unit. This, however, is the sound of a band at the height of their powers, and those heights are really quite high. If you like Radiohead, dEUS or Coldplay, you’ll find this album staying in your cd player for a long time to come. The first real highlight of the album is ‘Alphabet Soup’, the song that will do for the banjo what ‘Losing my Religion’ did for the mandolin. And, lets face it, any song that namechecks Maud Gonne (WB Yeats’ muse) can’t be bad. Daybreak could easily have sat in the middle of ‘A Rush Of Blood…’ and not looked out of place. ‘Eve, the apple of my eye’ is the first of the epic ballads, about a love gone wrong (aren’t they all?) It’s a showcase of the fantastic lyrics that the boys come up on a regular basis, as Paul Noonan reflects that ‘The only thing we share / Is the same sky’. ‘West of her spine’ is a nice piece of country hokum, with someone who sounds like Lee Hazelwood doing backing vocals… ‘Tongue’, which may be familiar to some of you from it’s airplay on The Amp is another stand-out track. It bears a resemblance to Radiohead’s ‘National Anthem’ but it actually pre-dates that song, the fact that Rice is co-credited with the writing giving it away. They really cut loose on the manic ‘White Water Song’ before the album takes a more down-tempo turn for the closing two ballads. ‘In Every Sunflower’ is another song about lost love, however this is made all the more poignant by the fact that the subject of the song, Uaneen Fitzsimons, one of Irelands top DJ’s was tragically killed in a car crash. It’s their finest song to date, a fitting tribute to a lady who is sorely missed by many. The lines
‘I wouldn’t swap the pain / for never knowing you / I wouldn’t swap the pain / It was worth it for the view’ could bring a lump to the throat of even the most hardened cynic. Go buy the album. Go see them live. It’s taken the UK a long time to catch on to Damien Rice Don’t leave it that long to buy this album.
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