I also love that we have such varied favourites in our lists, it shows the diversity of age and taste throughout DLO. I’d be very disappointed if we slotted neatly into some set demographic!
“Roy” is one of those albums that has something for every mood and while I have definite favourites which I posted earlier there aren’t any I don’t like, I enjoy all of them. I haven’t elaborated yet about “Roy” as a whole so while I have a bit of quiet time, here’s my thoughts about the album to add to the reviews as well.
From the first moment seeing the CD it was so exciting to see the beautiful presentation - the elegant cover & booklet inside (plus the return of Glenn A. Baker’s notes!) and the retro vinyl design of the CD itself. Barbara Orbison’s note as executive producer on the first page was such a touching endorsement and blessing for Damien & the project. I really enjoyed reading Damien’s own notes (and loved his reference to Eils as his own pretty woman) and that he never fails to remember us all at DLO!.
“Only the Lonely” starts things off nicely, I enjoyed this smooth as silk version while I also really loved the way Damien performed it acoustically at Dee Why in the show before Christmas last year and think that both treatments work.
It’s fantastic to now have a recorded version of
“Crying” in full. It’s always one of the audience favourites whenever Damien performs live and also always one of mine. While for me Damien’s acoustic live arrangement is the ultimate version, building so incredibly as the song progresses with only the simple accompaniment of his acoustic guitar highlighting the beauty and power of his voice, I also think the full orchestral swell of this recorded version at the end of the song to accompany Damien’s beautiful vocal is gorgeous and fittingly epic to such an iconic song.
“Dream Baby” was a great song choice for trying something a little different and this experiment works! Damien’s gentle vocal slides across a darkly intriguing dreamlike Arabesque landscape of an instrumental track featuring 70s funk guitar and electronic effects punctuated by the surprising rap interlude by Damon Elliott that seems right at home and effective in this context! This song’s a lot of fun - and like others here have mentioned, I’d love to hear Eric do the rap at the live shows!
“Oh Pretty Woman!” bursts onto the scene with great confidence. It’s a strong punchy track from the vocal right through to the arrangement and is a great tribute to a great song. Damien delivers it with verve, and his “Mercy!” has panache and assuredness. Haven’t seen him perform this one live yet but can imagine it being one to really get the crowds going, especially with full band!
“In Dreams” is one of the tear-your-heart-to-shreds songs I most love from Orbison and was one of the ones I was most looking forward to hear Damien interpret. Damien’s version is one of his best vocals on the whole album bringing to life the emotion of this song of a poor broken hearted soul who can now only look forward to sleep to talk, walk and be with the one he loves once more ‘In Dreams”. The slow string arrangement settles back to let Damien’s voice shine through this powerful lyric to its resolution in some of the purest and most emotive moments we’ve ever heard him sing. It’s truly an epic song of heartbroken love and sung to perfection by Damien.
The McClymonts marry beautifully with Damien’s voice next in
“Blue Bayou” and we are treated to a mellow sun-sparkling on the water arrangement that soothes the soul and perfectly evokes lazy afternoon daydreams. A restful wistful song with which to restore ourselves after the heartbreak of
“In Dreams”.
Its been fun to read the reactions to
“I Drove All Night” regarding the lyrics, though I can never help thinking the girl in this song might need a better security system, or what reception he might have
really got after creeping into her room in the middle of the night unannounced??
So many questions - does he have a key or did he have to break in? The guy in 22 Steps would feel right at home in this story I think??
It’s a fantastic sounding song and the arrangement so perfectly tells its story - can imagine this one going
off at the live shows and being a massive sing-a-long one!
“Handle With Care” with Bobby Flynn, Mark Gable & Ilan Kidron joining Damien - the original from the Traveling Wilburys is one of my favourite songs with lyrics so laden with George Harrison’s penetrating wise, gentle gaze and wry humour. I was so excited to see this included on the songlist and love that it nods so much to the original in arrangement as it builds so triumphantly the sense of survival and unity amongst the friends. I find the drop out of sound in the mix as Bobby starts his verse a little strange and slightly detracts from the overall effect of the performers as a united group, but that aside, I absolutely love this track!
“You Got It!” is another triumphal song, this time glorying in love at last fulfilled. It’s so perfectly structured to tell that story and Damien’s version has all the heart of the original which gives it such sincerity and power. The lushness of the arrangement into the final verse gives it even more presence and you know this guy has found the right girl and all will be right in his world. After the sadness expressed in so many of the songs it’s great to also have this one where the story is so happy!
“She’s A Mystery To Me” - It just doesn’t get much better for me than the thought of Damien singing this amazing song, one written by Bono specially for Orbison.
The song has legendary beginnings - Bono has spoken about listening to Orbison albums once then sleeping and awakening to the beginnings of “She’s A Mystery To Me” fermenting in his mind - he was sure it was an Orbison song but couldn’t find it, then realised it had come to him in a dream! Considering how well Damien’s voice is suited to both Orbison and U2 songs, this really is a match made in heaven. Of all the songs on the album this is the one I had previously loved most and was most excited to hear. I was in raptures just on hearing the previews let alone the full version!
So typically of Bono the sweetest melody is offset with such disarmingly dark lyrics and Damien emotes the balance perfectly. The arrangement is so beautifully structured - the walking, heart-beat pace moving through the building story offset with staccato piano and (perhaps) ironically placed swirls of harps, a soft whirring foggy background wall of electronica giving clues to the darker tale within of that “love so sharp it cuts”. Ironically, the clarity of background sound returns just in time for the lyric to declare its abandonment to its desperate situation and “if my love is blind then I don’t want to see” (evoking shades of ‘if Love is blindness, then I don’t want to see, won’t you wrap the night around me’ - that other great dark swirling love song by Bono).
I love that Damien has since mentioned in interviews that he has brought another point of difference to his arrangement with Buckley-esque guitars rather than the original piano as the end builds. The final notes are so purely delivered it never fails to be spine-tingling. I cannot wait to hear this live. Even if my heart bursts. Which it probably will!
+ burst = shims at the Enmore"Running Scared" - from start to finish it’s pure storytelling and one of those songs where you wait for that big moment, that big note - you know it’s coming, and then… Damien nails it! Stunning!
"It’s Over" - one of the other tear-your-heart-to-shreds songs I love most on the album. The arrangement is again perfect for telling the story of the song - it has epic qualities tinged with the madness of broken heart, a finality and resignation, a ferociousness expressed along with the mournful marching thud of the piano, drums & organ. Damien’s strong pure vocal holds the story aloft and ends it in the fire of one who flew too close to the sun but who disintegrated in glory.
“Love Hurts” - so reminiscent of my favourite of all Damien’s own songs, “For All of Time” from “Remember June” - this track to me SOUNDS most like a Damien song - and when I checked the credits, there it was - credited as produced by Damien Leith and Eric Aranda. For me nothing on this album more clearly showcases the clarity, lilt and tenderness in Damien’s voice and so truthfully showcases how Damien’s voice sounds at a live show. I LOVE it!
Once more, the honesty in Damien’s vocal & the simple instrumental arrangement perfectly tells the story of this song, you can hear every emotion of it in his voice and without exception each time its beauty brings tears to my eyes. Then there is the change of arrangement near the end, a fantastic swirling intrigue of demented harmonicas reminiscent of Crowded Houses’ “There Goes God”, an electronic filter over Damien’s vocal (at any other time a crime, but here, so effective), and what I thought at first was a banjo but then realised was a charango!! Yes - it’s the Chilean contingent of Eric Aranda, Cesar and Steve Marin making an appearance and it’s perfect!!!!
Go The Chillettes (as Damien refers to them in the liner notes - great name!!),
“Love Hurts” along with
“She’s A Mystery To Me” and
“It’s Over” are my stand out favourite tracks on the album.
“Working For the Man” - The mellow take on this once the instrumental starts really took me by surprise at first and I love it! For me it again totally evokes one of Damien’s intimate acoustic gigs - but with us all perhaps transported to a dusty courtyard setting around an open fire some timeless age ago with Damien & the Chillettes there at the end of a long day singing the story of going to get that bosses’ daughter as well as his company too, then everyone cheering and throwing Corona bottles into the fire and all singing another song.
It’s an unexpected but great place to visit at the end of the album!
If you have the Bonus song from iTunes - and if you don’t, then get to it! - your next song will be the lovely
“California Blue”. The arrangement reminded me at the start of Crowded Houses’ “When You Come” then Damien’s vocal and the guitar kicks in and it comes into its own. Beautiful smooth song to finish - and then hit repeat and start all over again!
Anyone familiar with Damien’s voice can hear how throughout this album he has learned and used new vocal technique in the process of discovering these songs and from the Nashville experience. It’s added further foundation and experience to his amazing natural gifts of not only vocals but songwriting which he can take into his new original projects - a very exciting prospect to look forward to!
The reason I said it needs a reply ODT, as you well know, ya great big stirrer 
LOL!
here which says to me that is a very very good album.
knowlege is minimal. But a few days ago I took ROY out of the CD player for the first time since April 15th! 
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