Earlier this month, Irish troubadour Damien Rice ended a lengthy hiatus with the announcement of his third studio album, My Favourite Faded Fantasy, out on November 11th via Warner Music. With production help from Rick Rubin, and an absolutely gorgeous lead single in “My Favourite Faded Fantasy”, the album is already one of this fall’s most anticipated releases. Today, Rice has shared another taste of the release with “I Don’t Want to Change You”.
As the lush and loud orchestration of “My Favourite Faded Fantasy” suggests, the album is likely to be Rice’s most ambitious, especially with Rubin behind the boards. The epic, flowing strings enveloping “I Don’t Want to Change You” solidify the sprawl of My Favourite Faded Fantasy. Whereas Rice used the upper register of his voice on the title track, here he sounds more subdued and reflective, especially as he softly confesses lines like “Wherever you are, know that I adore you” and “No matter how far, well I can go before you.”
Listen to a short clip of the song below, or stream the entire thing at NPR.org.
Update: Here’s an official stream.
Rice is also going on a North American tour to support the new album, click here for his full schedule.