Glen Hansard/Markéta Irglova "The Swell Season" White/Green LP (2022)

Details: The 2006 debut release from Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova of the movie, ONCE. Limited to 1,000, pressed on white vinyl, with green swirls. New stock, sealed. The album includes the Grammy-nominated track, "Falling Slowly," recipient of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. 

Description: "In 2005, The Frames' front man Glen Hansard teamed up with classically trained Czech vocalist and pianist, Markéta Irglova, to produce The Swell Season, an album of affecting songs and compositions. The record sidestepped many of the conventional strategies offered on The Frames’ records. From straight songs to piano instrumentals The Swell Season afforded an insight into a whole other side of Hansard, as well as offering a perfect introduction to a very talented newcomer in Irglova. Fresh off another year of constant touring and gigging with The Frames, Glen retired to the Czech Republic for some downtime. There he spent much of his time writing songs. A winter in Eastern Europe can be unkind, yet it also loans itself to an indoor creative energy that can often stir the muses. This batch of songs didn’t seem to loan themselves to the anthemic nature of the band. Glen decided to enter a studio with sometime collaborator, Markéta, and the two left with the chilling and intimate, The Swell Season. The record takes its name from author Josef Skvorecky’s book of the same name. Set in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia the story centers on one man's love of music and pursuit of unattainable women as a country comes unglued. Like the book, The Swell Season deals with the pains and hopes of those struggling to make sense of their lives. A place where characters fade into the picture only to be eclipsed by their own darkness, pursuing the unattainable, wishing for that one love, that one great chance that will give meaning to their lives. Whether it comes or not is all how you see things."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. This Low
A2. Sleeping
A3. Falling Slowly
A4. Drown Out
A5. Lies

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. When Your Mind's Made Up
B2. The Swell Season
B3. Leave
B4. The Moon
B5. Alone Apart