Glen Hansard | Didn’t He Ramble
I would like to say that I heard of Glen Hansard from his work with The Frames but really, like a lot of men my age it’s just because some girl made us see the film Once. Truth be told, I liked the movie, but the ending still bothered me. SPOILER ALERT: the two musicians semi-romantically involved don’t end up together in the end. It’s weird, I’m the kind of jerk who hates “happy endings” that shouldn’t actually take place according to real life standards but then then guy and girl for a change don’t end up together and it never quite sat right with me. I know, you can’t win. But I already said I was a jerk, what else do you want? I guess, I did take solace in the fact that the real people, Hansard and Marketa Iglova, did end up together in real life: both romantically, and musically in the continuation of their project The Swell Season. Well, at least for a couple years.
Since the duo had parted ways years ago Hansard released a solo album in 2012 and an EP in 2013 but I hadn’t really given either much of a chance. Which hasn’t been fair of me. Call me soft (hell, call me worse) but I really loved some of the Swell Season songs. “When Your Minds Made Up” still hits me hard and there are songs from Strict Joy like “Low Rising”, “High Horses”, and “Two Tongues” that get regular play in my world. I know Hansard can write good songs, and just because he split with Iglova doesn’t mean he’s dead to me. I don’t even know these people. What the hell am I saying?
When I heard Hansard’s new single from Didn’t He Ramble, “Lowly Deserter”, I knew it was time to pay attention to him again. I just fucking love this song. I don’t care if I would be the first coward to desert, musically this is one of my favorite songs in months. Sorry Marketa, you’ve been successfully replaced by a trombone. Well, really a whole horn section. You co-existed well enough with the strings, but there’s really only so much sound space. This isn’t the fucking Springsteen live show.
Honestly, the rest of the album is sort of hit or miss. I like songs like “Her Mercy” that embrace that full band sound like “Lowly Deserter” did and I really like “McCormack’s Wall” that starts our like a National song and ends up in traditional Irish music land. But there are a few songs where Hansard sounds less like he’s from Dublin and more like he’s from the American south. Actually “Paying My Way” reminds me way too much of that Kid Rock song from that truck commercial which almost disqualifies this whole album from being worthy of a listen. Stay in your lane, Hansard. It’s better to be a soft singer-songwriter resembling Damien Rice than to rock your way into Mellencamp territory. And if the folky acoustic jams start to bore you, bring in some of those sweet horns again.
The Drink: I stayed sober for two nights in a row and I still felt like shit the next day. Stop taking my drink advice.
Bake
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[…] And some listening to music. Nothing new though and honestly, mostly The National. As I stated before, the beginning of “McCormack’s Wall” from the new Glen Hansard album reminded me of the […]
[…] Glen Hansard | Didn’t He Ramble – I don’t love all of the songs here but “Lowly Deserter”, “McCormack’s Wall”, “My Little Ruin”, and “Just to Be the One” are enough to keep me listening to this album. Maybe some of the other songs will grow on me. He’s too good of a songwriter for me to give up on him. Unlike that bitch Marketa. You know that you’re going to regret reuniting with your husband in two weeks! Gah. Hey, you shut up, Once is not just a movie to me. […]