Don't You Forget About Me #3 - 9 Crimes

Damien Rice - 9 Crimes

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Depressingly amazing or amazingly depressing? Either or, nothing can take away from how beautiful this song really is. I won't pretend to know exactly what '9 Crimes' is actually about. Guesswork leads me to believe it's about a couple who are struggling to come to terms with the fact that they are growing apart and falling in love with other people. Sad? Yes, but it makes a fantastic theme for a song.

Like many of Rice's other songs, '9 Crimes' is based on a simple melody and thought provoking lyrics that rely on emotional vocal delivery. And the delivery from Rice and frequent collaborator Lisa Hannigan is definitely emotional. You can feel the despair as they ask each other if what they're doing is alright and you already know the answer is somewhere in the no department.

If you can't tell from the previous Don't You Forget About Me's, I enjoy a song that builds up throughout. This certainly happens here, as Hannigan and Rice take turns with verses before singing over the top of each other as strings and percussion build up in the background until the emotional climax that ends the vocals with Rice's, "no," before fading out with the opening piano melody.

The accompanying music video is pretty cool too. A bit bizarre, but they get points for trying something different. At first I was like, "why would they have a severed head singing?" But it's cool, it's actually a balloon. Duh. In case you're wondering where you might have heard '9 Crimes' before, it's appeared in the (lame) Shrek the Third movie and episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Jericho, CSI and The Inbetweeners.