I figured I wasn’t alone this morning wondering if the Oscar win for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (and those gorgeous acceptance speeches) would finally mean a breakthrough in the US for The Frames. Great to see that NPR is wondering too – Falling Slowly is its Song of the Day.
“One of the best live bands in existence — for evidence, listen to ‘What Happens When the Heart Just Stops (audio) from the tremendous 2004 live album Set List — The Frames and singer Glen Hansard seem perpetually on the brink of becoming massively famous, even iconic. [...] A longtime master of sad-bastard music at its most sublimely melodramatic, Hansard actually finds words of hard-won hope and comfort on ‘Falling Slowly’: ‘You have suffered enough and warred with yourself / It’s time that you won.’”
“Sad-bastard music” – lovely.
The NPR Song of the Day newsletter is worth subscribing to, for anyone interested in finding new music, or at least, music new to them. Among albums I’ve discovered through it are Neruda Songs (Lorraine Hunt Lieberson) and Scene of the Crime (Bettye Lavette).
3 Comments
February 25, 2008 at 8:39 pm
The Frames huge in Ireland for years, the best band in the world and irelands best kept secret till now…
March 14, 2008 at 10:54 pm
<>
And so apt.
That phrase was the very reason I came here
I live in the US, and a lot of people here are embracing the Frames, while a few of our colleagues smugly tell us they’ve known all along.
I’ve DLd The Swell Season from iTunes, where the Frames are enjoying brisk sales, and I think Glen and Marketa are wonderful!
Well, they’re not a secret anymore. I’m thrilled for them.
March 14, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Oops, sorry. My script-writing is not very good (I’ll leave aside for the moment my apparent inability to spell my own first name.
The phrase I was referring to was “sad-bastard music.”