A restrained composition where the weight sits just beneath the surface
| Garrett Anthony Rice’s latest single, “The Coastal Walls (The Shame of Everyone),” included in his upcoming double album Equinox, faces slavery in America directly by referencing the cotton industry without any ambiguity. What makes the song unsettling is not its weight, but its restraint. The pace is familiar, the openness of the arrangement the kind of mid-tempo drift that has come to characterize much of Rice’s work. It’s the kind of song that could be mistaken for being less heavy, even on initial listens. It’s a mistake that’s part of the point. It doesn’t signal itself, which is what’s unsettling. |
| Listen to “The Coastal Walls (The Shame of Everyone)” HERE |
| Rice’s writing doesn’t attempt to aestheticize the material. There is no attempt to make the brutality easier or to reinterpret it as a metaphor. Rather, the song treats its subject from a distance for just long enough for it to be acknowledged. This puts the song in a long line of songwriters who have treated history as something to be named rather than interpreted. The final minute disrupts the balance. The openness closes in, the tone turns in on itself, and a darker, more abrasive edge is introduced that’s almost at odds with everything that’s come before it. And that’s where the song resolves, not in any sense of resolution, but in a sense of complication for what’s already been presented on the surface. As another piece in the progression that’s building up to Equinox, “The Coastal Walls (The Shame of Everyone)” implies a broadening scope that moves beyond the personal narrative and into a more uncomfortable relationship with historical events. |
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Bio:
Hailing from County Dublin, Ireland, and now living in Greystones, County Wicklow, for the last twenty years with his family, Garrett Anthony Rice intends to make a significant impact on the global music scene in 2025.
EQUINOX is the first double album (18 songs) to be released by a debut solo artist as their second record in musical history, so the task of writing and completing this record was pretty daunting and enormous.
Garrett released his debut album under the alias of (i) CONSULT in October 2023, entitled “Reflections Part II, the very best of……” which was streamed in 93 countries and piqued the interest of UK producer Chris Potter (The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, U2 and The Verve/ Richard Ashcroft) in late 2023. Out of a possible 30 recorded demos, 18 were selected and recorded throughout 2024, both in the UK and Ireland and already, the well-known and esteemed music professionals who worked on this record and who have heard it are lauding this album as the record of this year.
“My Sons” was the first single from the record released on 28 February 2025 which Garrett wrote for Mrs. Peggy Gallagher, mother of OASIS’ Liam and Noel, when they were still estranged. The song ties into the other diverse themes on the album, which industry professionals are already touting as one of the best Irish albums ever made.
His single, “Property (An Ode To Roger Syd Barrett, a genius, 1946-infinity),” is a tribute to Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, and it attempts to reverse the tired narrative that he was an artist to be pitied and avoided rather than the influential and brilliant songwriter he was. “EQUINOX” will be available to pre-save closer to the time of release on vinyl and all platforms.
