Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova earned two Grammy nominations in 2008 for scoring and composing the songs of "Once." (WALLY SKALIJ, TPN / June 21, 2007) |
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Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova essentially played romanticized versions of themselves in the 2007 indie movie "Once": He a 30-ish Irish journeyman singer, she a teenage Czech pianist. In the movie, the unlikely couple bonded over music that loosely chronicled their evolving relationship. Was it art imitating life, or vice versa? Either way, the public was charmed. Two years and one Oscar victory later (for best original song), the duo's band the Swell Season has become the new darling of the indie-folk set.
"Strict Joy" (Anti-) is the much anticipated follow-up to the "Once" soundtrack, which sold more than 700,000 copies, and it expands the singers' sound without significantly altering it. Producer Peter Katis (who has worked with The National and Interpol) ornaments the duo's foundation — Hansard's battered acoustic guitar, Irglova's piano, coed harmonies — with nuanced orchestration and a spacious mix that flatters the singers' interplay.
Hansard's heat-and-devastation ebb-and-flow is fully on display on the Van Morrison-like opener, "Low Rising," and he is the album's focal point. Irglova's backing vocals are essential, however, austere and haunting in contrast to Hansard's lacerating transparency. When Irglova sings lead on a couple of heartbreakers, "Fantasy Man" and "I Have Loved You Wrong," she brings a mixture of stately dignity and fragile beauty. The lack of melodrama is refreshing, given that many of these songs reflect on the couple's two-year romance and eventual breakup. The flickering embers are extinguished on the final song, "Back Broke," with Hansard singing barely above a whisper over Irglova's piano and some Spanish-flavored guitar. If "Once" was an album about falling (slowly) in love, "Strict Joy" is about the bittersweet aftermath.
— Greg Kot, Tribune Newspapers Critic
Wolfmother, 'Cosmic Egg'
This Australian retro-rock outfit emerged in 2006 with a rigorously fat-free debut that played like " Led Zeppelin II" for Generation ADHD. Despite the band's worldwide success, two-thirds of Wolfmother's original lineup quit the group last year, citing irreconcilable creative differences with big-haired frontman Andrew Stockdale. Perhaps they were tired of killer and hungry for filler.
Or maybe it was the other way around: Assisted by three fresh recruits unlikely to tell their new boss no, Stockdale stretches his prog-metal legs on "Cosmic Egg," (DGC/Interscope), which with its lengthy guitar solos, trippy instrumental bits and overheated sci-fi lyrics seems more suited to genre enthusiasts than to Top 40 tourists. Given Stockdale's way with an economy-size hook, that's an unfortunate allocation of resources; too few of the dozen tracks here reach out and demand your attention the way older songs like "Woman" or "Dimension" did.
Some tunes are catchier than others: Opener " California Queen" has a leanly insistent two-note riff, while "White Feather" rides a "D'yer Mak'er"-like heavy-funk groove. And as trippy instrumental bits go, well, Wolfmother's do the job; in "Violence of the Sun," for instance, there's a droning keyboard part that sounds like blood pumping through your brain (or something).
Yet for all his laser-light-show aspirations, Stockdale's strength doesn't really lie in blowing your mind. He's more of a move-your-feet kind of guy.
— Mikael Wood, Special to Tribune Newspapers
"Strict Joy" (Anti-) is the much anticipated follow-up to the "Once" soundtrack, which sold more than 700,000 copies, and it expands the singers' sound without significantly altering it. Producer Peter Katis (who has worked with The National and Interpol) ornaments the duo's foundation — Hansard's battered acoustic guitar, Irglova's piano, coed harmonies — with nuanced orchestration and a spacious mix that flatters the singers' interplay.
Hansard's heat-and-devastation ebb-and-flow is fully on display on the Van Morrison-like opener, "Low Rising," and he is the album's focal point. Irglova's backing vocals are essential, however, austere and haunting in contrast to Hansard's lacerating transparency. When Irglova sings lead on a couple of heartbreakers, "Fantasy Man" and "I Have Loved You Wrong," she brings a mixture of stately dignity and fragile beauty. The lack of melodrama is refreshing, given that many of these songs reflect on the couple's two-year romance and eventual breakup. The flickering embers are extinguished on the final song, "Back Broke," with Hansard singing barely above a whisper over Irglova's piano and some Spanish-flavored guitar. If "Once" was an album about falling (slowly) in love, "Strict Joy" is about the bittersweet aftermath.
— Greg Kot, Tribune Newspapers Critic
Wolfmother, 'Cosmic Egg' 
This Australian retro-rock outfit emerged in 2006 with a rigorously fat-free debut that played like " Led Zeppelin II" for Generation ADHD. Despite the band's worldwide success, two-thirds of Wolfmother's original lineup quit the group last year, citing irreconcilable creative differences with big-haired frontman Andrew Stockdale. Perhaps they were tired of killer and hungry for filler.
Or maybe it was the other way around: Assisted by three fresh recruits unlikely to tell their new boss no, Stockdale stretches his prog-metal legs on "Cosmic Egg," (DGC/Interscope), which with its lengthy guitar solos, trippy instrumental bits and overheated sci-fi lyrics seems more suited to genre enthusiasts than to Top 40 tourists. Given Stockdale's way with an economy-size hook, that's an unfortunate allocation of resources; too few of the dozen tracks here reach out and demand your attention the way older songs like "Woman" or "Dimension" did.
Some tunes are catchier than others: Opener " California Queen" has a leanly insistent two-note riff, while "White Feather" rides a "D'yer Mak'er"-like heavy-funk groove. And as trippy instrumental bits go, well, Wolfmother's do the job; in "Violence of the Sun," for instance, there's a droning keyboard part that sounds like blood pumping through your brain (or something).
Yet for all his laser-light-show aspirations, Stockdale's strength doesn't really lie in blowing your mind. He's more of a move-your-feet kind of guy.
— Mikael Wood, Special to Tribune Newspapers
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