It almost seems natural for me now to be listening to soundtracks to films I have yet to see. Smaller films like Once never open where I live, so i’m usually sadly left with having to wait for it to be released on dvd or if i’m lucky, having it open on wider screens if it finds success like Little Miss Sunshine. Despite all of it’s accolades I had been reading, it wasn’t until I watched the trailer a few weeks ago that I knew it was a little film I would really enjoy. A simple little film telling a story of two musicians who meet one night and form a friendship over their love of music? The hopeless romantic in me glows when I read something like that. I love films like this, and hopefully i’ll be able to see it sometime soon.
I purchased the soundtrack on iTunes earlier today, basically on a whim and just listened to it today at work. I’m not familiar with either musicians besides the fact that Glen Hansard sings for The Frames and Marketa Irglova is a classicaly trained pianist and vocalist. I think it’s nice that I don’t know anything about either of them, just because it makes me enjoy listening to the music a lot more. What a great soundtrack this is though, with many of the songs coming from past albums from The Frames and a few coming from an album Hansard and Irglova recorded over four days after meeting in in 2006 called The Swell Season. Each song manages to capture such emotion, and i’m sure they do even more so in context with the actual film. It makes me wonder what their personal relationship is, because there isn’t much provided outside of the two being musical collaborators.
The songs that I really gravitated to were the few that contained Irglova singing lead vocals, as they had this very haunting quality and had this sense of hopeless yearning that made my heart ache while I was listening. Just those few songs are worth picking up this soundtrack and The Swell Season alone, but they provide a nice contrast of moods between the tracks from Irglova and Hansard’s, who’s songs have more of a hopeful and uplifting type of sound. It’s simply beautiful, with great lyrics and excellent musical arrangements. I highly recommend picking up this excellent soundtrack and The Swell Season as I think you might be pleasantly surprised at how good and enjoyable they both are.
The Swell Season | myspace | buy
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova | “Falling Slowly”
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova | “Alone Apart”
Once (Music from the Motion Picture) | website | trailer | buyGlen Hansard & Marketa Irglova | “When Your Mind’s Made Up”
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova | “If You Want Me”
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I met Glen once when he played a gig in my hometown of Mullingar,
he gets a lot snidely press recently in Ireland where there is a backlash against the whole singer-songwriter genre and its ilk.
However himself & The Frames are a genuine talent, and these duets are amazing…
i had the pleasure of seeing this film a few days ago and it was, in a word, amazing. and i bought the soundtrack and swell season on itunes after seeing the movie. just watching this trailer makes me want to run to the movie theatre right now and see it again.
I’m gonna wait to listen to this stuff until I see the movie. I function better that way, so I don’t get distracted by recognizing things.
Good idea haha. I’m just impatient
I went to this film with my best friend on opening day– which was about 3 weeks ago now, at the Sunshine Cinema in downtown NYC. we’d seen the preview a month or so before and KNEW straight away we would love it, and we were NOT disappointed.
The soundtrack is amazing and Glen and Marketa are too.
The movie is great. I just read that Glen and Marketa recently became a real-life couple while they were on the road promoting the film, despite the fact that she’s 19 and he’s 37.
Glen and the frames are one of those live bands that gives you that tickle in your stomach for music when see them. i was not a big singer songwriter fan until i saw him play by himself in asbury park 5 or so years ago. He’s up there with Tweedy and Buckley for artists of our time. If you ever get a chance you will thank me.
you are going to LOVE this film when you finally get a chance to see it.
i want to see this
the soundtrack makes this movie as human and powerful as it is. apparently Hansard & Irglova are playing some live shows…now that would be something to hear.
It is just GREAT. SUPPPER