The Swell Season release pretty 'Strict Joy'
Photo credit: AP Photo | The Swell Season continue to make pretty music on their new album, "Strict Joy."
Heartbreak and unease have rarely sounded prettier.
Maybe it's the circumstance - The Swell Season's Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were a real-life couple before they played one in the movie "Once" and subsequently broke up just as the accolades, including an Oscar for best original song, started rolling in. Or maybe it's that Hansard's weary delivery of raw, introspective lyrics fit perfectly with Irglova's delicate harmonies and the spare, acoustic folk backdrop.
In either case, The Swell Season's latest effort, "Strict Joy" (Anti-), shows how simple arrangements can still communicate volumes about life's complexities. Hansard's vocals and compositions are uniquely flexible, summoning Damien Rice's vocal pain one moment ("Back Broke") and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck ("High Horses") the next, sliding between acoustic Radiohead orchestration ("The Verb") and current country ("In These Arms," which any number of Nashville singers should be lining up to cover right now).
It's no accident that the most joyous moment on "Strict Joy" comes during "I Have Loved You Wrong," where Irglova takes over the lead vocals. After asking for forgiveness for several verses, she builds a bridge of possibility by repeating, "You're every now and then on my mind" as Hansard's harmonies and the accompaniment swell and retreat until the duo is singing a cappella and they seem caught up in a happy memory. Then again, maybe it was an accident. After all, The Swell Season is usually best in its unguarded moments.
THE SWELL SEASON
"Strict Joy"
THE GRADE A-
BOTTOM LINE The "Once" duo do it again
