It’s been almost six years since Damien Rice’s debut, “O” (not zero, but “oh”) was released.

He received some attention after his song “The Blower’s Daughter” was attached to the movie “Closer.” This was unfortunate because “Volcano” is infinitely a better song, and was only a mediocre hit.

Luckily, there are no successors to “The Blower’s Daughter” on “9,” but there aren’t really any to “Volcano” either.

“9” is marred by awkward phrasing and even more awkward metaphorical wordage. The songs are more characteristic of the songs released as b-sides of the “O” songs. They’re rough for the most part, choppier than the “O” songs in arrangement and every other aspect. If “O” was a calm ocean, “9” is a small storm.

The track that best represents the album as a whole is “Rootless Tree.” There is a large amount of non-repetitive lyrical content, and it’s relatively dynamic as far as the contrast between quiet and loud and sparse and dense.

It’s also very frank but mysterious in its content with lyrics like the shouted “F--k you / f--k you / f--k you / and all we’ve been through,” but we don’t even get any solid hints as to what they’ve been through.

That’s the biggest problem with the record — the metaphors are so awkward and personal, like inside tragedies instead of jokes. So here and there, such as “Wakin’ up without you is like drinkin’ from an empty cup” from “Elephant,” we have something to attach to, but then in the same song the listener has to ask what does “make babies and accidental songs mean?”

As inapproachable as it is, it’s unavoidably engaging, piercing and moving. With floating lusty swaying, the album is at its best when Rice, the siren goddess Lisa Hannigan and Vyvienne Long’s cello are at work in a three-part harmony. The combination leaves Sigor Ros’s stuff sounding like musical Legos.

Rice experiments with avant-noise tomfoolery, plays a percussive but fluid folk guitar, howls like it’s no one’s business and somehow can also produce the most listenable, flowing and innocuous melodies. Rice is the next everyone, but because he’s doing it all at once on this record, he might still be a relative no one for a long time.

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