Musician, actor, songwriter, busker, Oscar-Winner. Glen Hansard has managed all of these things yet remains largely unknown outside his native Ireland. His band, The Frames, have been staples of the Irish rock scene since they formed in 1990. The band get their name from Hansard's other obsession which was fixing bike frames. His garden was apparently a graveyard for bikes and his neighbours used to refer to their home as "the house with the frames". Much to his mum's chagrin.
Outside Ireland Hansard is perhaps best known for his role in low-budget but brilliant indie movie 'Once'. It's a naturalistic 'musical' based around a Brief Encounter between a Dublin street musician cum 'Hoover-fixer' (Hansard) and a Czech flower seller (Markéta Irglová). Sounds awful doesn't it? Yet it's sweetly romantic, witty and hugely affecting with great soundtrack written by Hansard and Irglová. Some of those songs are fleshed out here by the full band.
The Frames make frequent use of slow builds into big anthemic choruses, the trick used ad nauseum by Coldplay and Snow Patrol. Somehow it feels less crassly commercial and obvious here. Perhaps it's because Hansard is a superior wordsmith to either Chris Martin or Gary Lightbody whose lyrics frequently read like GCSE poetry. Perhaps it's because the record isn't overly produced and smothered with Brian Eno's effects, you can hear every instrument cleanly. Every high-hat, every chiming guitar note. It's also because Hansard's voice has a natural, human quality. It's powerful when it needs to be as on the roaring chorus to 'When Your Mind's Made Up' but also fragile and delicate elsewhere.
The Oscar winning 'Falling Slowly' and 'When Your Mind's Made Up' are the songs re-worked from the Once soundtrack. Though they lose none of their emotional quality with a full band. Hansard gives a committed delivery of his confessional lyrics.
The album sags a little in the middle with the dreary title song 'The Cost'. It's also fair to say that 'True' is a little too close to Radiohead's 'Climbing The Walls' for comfort, although it's still a captivating song and performance.
Hansard sings on the country-tinged 'Sad Songs' that "too many sad words make for sad, sad songs". He's right. But they also make for a bittersweet and enjoyable forty minutes.
SAD SONGS
FALLING SLOWLY
TRUE
No comments:
Post a Comment