If Damien Rice had grown up in the deep south instead of Eastern Ireland he may very well have written this song. Underwater is imbued with the same use of space, sweeping grace and atmosphere that Rice fills his songs with and the fact that Brian Mackey delivers a song which already sounds like it is from the closing credits of an underground film which has blown up massively with mainstream audiences says a lot about his abilities.
It is a song which feels as weightless in its musicality as it is heavy in its heart-aching sentiment, just the sound of a man with his piano writing a soundtrack to his memories yet somehow sitting in the space between musical expression and private rumination, exposing regrets without relinquishing them. It is this balance between the public song and the private thought that makes this emotional exorcism even more intense for being so tentative. Music can be many things but it is at its most potent when it is honest, reflective and intensely beautiful.
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