Things have all changed for Glen Hansard. It is almost two decades since I purchased The Frames first 7” single The Dancer and I have watched ever since as record companies dumped them and they hung on for dear life before scrambling to the top of Ireland’s music mountain. Then Hansard accidently teamed up with a young Czech girl named Marketa Irglova, recorded a few songs that made up a record, and then by a freak of circumstances found themselves centre of an against all odds cinema hit that hurled them into the arms of America, bringing phenomenal success and even an Oscar. On that amazing Oscar night, which Hansard has likened to scoring the winning goal for Ireland in the World Cup Final (and we all cheered equally delighted!), Bono sent him a message, “From Busker to Oscar” and summed up that career I have been watching so carefully. There is a three disc deluxe version of this new album that helps reveal the Hansard we have all got to know and love. There are some lovely moments both in the live songs and in the snippets in between where Glen and Mar talk about their art.
Hansard has talked about mapping his life in songs and in one of those songs he shouted about “I want my life to make more sense/I want my life to make amends/ I want my life to make more sense to me.” Strict Joy is all about those things. In the vortex of their accidental career, Glen and Mar fell accidently in love and have since fallen out of love and decided, it seems, to write an album about the disappointment of love breaking down. Fleetwood Mac they are not and Rumours this is not but it does live in that very strange terrain where Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham fuelled art together by weaving art together while their hearts were breaking apart. The album title is taken from a poem by James Stephens:
“For as he meditated misery
And cared it into song – Strict Care, Strict Joy
Caring for grief, he cared his grief away
And those sad songs, tho’ woe be all the theme
Do not make us grieve who read them now –
Because the poet makes grief beautiful.”
The album that takes this poem’s title fulfils the vocation of the lamenting love song. As Glen and Mar make the grief of their broken relationship beautiful you see the spiritual purpose of sad songs; the ability of songs to bring healing. We might even see in the documentary companion the proof of the pudding. These songs that they work on together might be the reason that Glen and Mar seem to be able to hold on to a tender, loving friendship.
In These Arms declares that one of our reasons for existence is to love – “Maybe I was born to hold you in these arms.” The next song The Rain however reminds us that all our dreams are limited by our failings – “OK I’m not what I promised you I’d become” - and that in the end as Mar puts it so vulnerably, honestly and plainly on I Have Loved You Wrong – “Forgive me lover/For I have sinned/And I have loved you wrong.” It is almost a liturgical confessional and brings us back to these love songs being part of something more than frivolous, fleeting romances. This is love that is part of a much bigger plot which Glen perhaps points out when he sings “I’m feeling so small/Against a big sky tonight.”
Musically Strict Joy is layered, crafted without ever being shiny or sheen. Hansard’s gift is melody that is immediately enticing but gradually reveals so that you are in from the start but benefit from repeated listens. This album is much more Glen than Mar which suggests that The Frames and Swell Season are two differing settings for the one songwriter. Where Hansard’s fascinating story goes next will be as interesting as his past. Can he and Mar continue on a human or artistic level will be fascinating? Will his next album be with The Frames? Will the Once star keep rising or fall back to earth? Whatever, anyone who has followed until now has learned to enjoy the moment Hansard is in. Strict Joy is another great moment; as my lovely friend Karin sings, “What a beautiful piece of heartache...”
It's funny how seemingly low key lines in an album stand out. I've listened to it maybe 2-3 times and if you'd asked me to quote a lyric, i'd have said 'OK I’m not what I promised you I’d become'... even though its hardly Keats. a simple honest sentiment i guess, well sung.
Posted by: twitter.com/JonnyGibson | 12/11/2009 at 09:55 AM