Album Reviews

Album Review: The Swell Season – Strict Joy (Anti-)

By | Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009

The Swell Season

The short history of The Swell Season is deeply cinematic. Prior to their glorious union, Glen Hansard was best known as the Irish working class hero who served at the helm of folk-rock ensemble The Frames, for the bones of two decades, while Marketa Irglova was a young, classically-trained Czech pianist.

They recorded their eponymous debut in 2006, which, one year later, would be reinvented as the bulk of the soundtrack to John Carney’s modern Irish musical ‘Once’. Glen and Marketa appeared in the film as songwriters who discover that their chemistry extends beyond the realms of their musical partnership. It’s funny how often life imitates art, and the pair reaffirmed this old adage when they fell in love during the filming. The resulting bashful, swooping joy of new love resounds throughout the elation of ‘Falling Slowly’, their Oscar-winning song written during the making of the movie.

Their unuttered tentative emotions and lust acted as the hot blood pumping the heart of ‘The Swell Season’, but ‘Strict Joy’ is a horse of a very different colour. Their romance is no more, but they seem, to a certain degree, at peace with their failed relationship. Here, a sense of comfortable separation replaces the explosive intimacy of the debut album. It works on the basis of a much bigger, fuller sound, lending further to the impression that it is no longer about them, alone.

This upbeat, honest affair feels a little deflated when compared to the passion of its predecessor, but the bright spark that burnt so bright between these two is still smouldering. MB

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