{"id":41050,"date":"2008-08-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-cost\/"},"modified":"2008-08-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-13T00:00:00","slug":"the-cost","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s tough not to appreciate the success of last year\u2019s Once, <\/i>the little low-budget story of star-crossed lovers that blew past three tracks from Enchanted <\/i>to nab the Best Original Song Oscar. But when he\u2019s not playing a tenderhearted busker falling for real-life love Marketa Irglova, Glen Hansard fronts Irish rock group The Frames, which formed in the early \u201890s and has released nine albums together.\u00a0 Their latest, 2007\u2019s The Cost, <\/i>has all the lovelorn, perfectly measured lyrics and overriding charm of Once, <\/i>just fleshed out with thicker, although still soaring, instrumentation that lends the songs a slow-burning, at times almost epic build.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Both \u201cFalling Slowly\u201d and \u201cWhen Your Mind\u2019s Made Up\u201d showed up in Once, <\/i>and they\u2019re stunning: Hansard\u2019s voice melds seamlessly from the former\u2019s sensitive tones to the \u00a0increasingly unhinged growl of \u201cWhen Your Mind\u2019s Made Up\u201d, backed by raw scrapes of guitar and Colm Mac An Iomaire\u2019s almost hysteric\u00a0 strings. \u00a0The Frames inevitably draw comparisons to fellow Dubliners U2, but there\u2019s a soulful grace to Hansard\u2019s voice that sounds more similar to Van Morrison, though the group can break out the heart-crushing anthems when needed. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Just check out the winning tag team of \u201cSad Songs\u201d and \u201cThe Cost.\u201d \u201cSongs\u201d is all hooky, infectious melodies, with its singing drum crashes and immediate resonance, while \u201cThe Cost\u201d is its darker-edged companion, featuring barely more than distorted guitar and Hansard\u2019s lone, echoed vocals. \u201cWill we let it burn, burn us down, burn us,\u201d he sings, voice hushed as the guitars begin to crash around him, mimicking his anguished yowling that finally dissolves off into the song\u2019s achingly hopeful last line, \u201cAnd maybe it\u2019ll turn us around?\u201d\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

For every ragged, <\/i>wrenching moment of catharsis here, there\u2019s another gloriously tender track to be soaked in. Opener \u201cSong For Someone\u201d is all sumptuous instrumentation and affecting beauty, combining silky touches of acoustic guitar and strings with simple yet precise lyrics: \u201cTryin\u2019 to focus on the good \/ I\u2019m tired of divin\u2019 for the pearls \/ And every dawn is another morning less \/ I have to wait to wake beside that girl.\u201d Meanwhile, \u201cPeople Get Ready\u201d is spilling over with energy, rising to its climax on the wings of a soaring string section and an effervescent, ecstatically-delivered chorus, \u201cWe have all the time in the world \/ To get it right, to get it right \/ We have all the love in the world \/ To set alight, to set alight.\u201d This song has the sort of inexorable power and stadium-ready soulfulness of U2\u2019s \u201cBad,\u201d and the only way it could be better is catching it live.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album closes out (all-too soon) with \u201cBad Bone,\u201d which starts out as a sparse reflection on \u201ca bad bone inside of me \/ All my troubles started there\u2026A jealousy that\u2019s killed every love I\u2019ve ever known.\u201d Then the guitars kick in, clear and ringing, and the track becomes an impassioned, hopeful ode to love, simmering off as Hansard pleads, \u201cSo if you\u2019ll lead the way.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Alternately washed over with melancholy and rising to resplendence, The<\/i> Cost <\/i>is nevertheless evocative and wonderfully elegant throughout. This is a hidden treasure of an album worth the time it takes to unearth and explore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6450],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41050","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-frames","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41050"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41050"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}