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Three years after the Dublin-born troubadour released his debut album, O, any fears that Rice might have sold out are thankfully unfounded. After the success of 'The Blower's Daughter' (which featured prominently on Mike Nichols' film Closer), the contingent of Essex boys singing along to 'Eskimo' at his gigs increased noticeably. But Rice is still his uncompromising, prickly self (there will be no tours, no interviews this time). And the new album itself is quite addictive: from the savagery of 'Rootless Tree', which starts as a deceptively saccharine ballad, then explodes with anger, to the sublime, fragile 'Accidental Babies'.

There can be a tiresome earnestness to the new crop of male singer-songwriters, but, ever candid, Rice describes song-writing as expressing 'immature' emotions in a more eloquent form. And there's plenty on jealousy and doomed relationships on the new album. A self-confessed 'depressive fucker', he's clearly tricky boyfriend material. The Rice worldview is very much 'me, myself I' (or 'Me, My Yoke and I' as the new song on 9 puts it). But look out for an edgy new tenderness on the Leonard Cohen-esque 'The Animals Were Gone'.

There are flaws: while O was basically a raw, acoustic set, fleshed out by bass, drums, cello and his vocal accompanist Lisa Hannigan, 9 is more self-consciously discordant. At times Rice can be too experimental for his own good . But it's hard not to love a man who writes lyrics such as 'I love your depression and I love your double chin.'

Recommended: 'Rootless Tree'; 'The Animals Were Gone'