The Swell Season... a music maturing

Strict Joy, second album from The Swell Season, unveils Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová in confident swing. Their musical relationship has grown and matured at a rate of knots - fuelled by a deep artistic empathy. They fit together and complement each other in a rare fashion; male and female voice, guitar and piano. Him garrulous, extrovert, heart on the sleeve, her reflective and circumspect.

They're writing what I call 'pure music'. What I mean by this is music where the delivery and presentation is unimportant, and where the time and place and context are unimportant too. So for example, on the live recording accompanying this CD they perform "Falling Slowly", with the Frames musicians and a high school choir joining them for backing - while equally the same song holds true if it's just him on the acoustic guitar. More broadly I mean that the songs are so strong as compositions that it would be no leap to hear other musicians, in completely different genres, playing them in a different key, at a different tempo... the essence survives. The classic example is "Wonderwall" - and Noel Gallagher's famous comment about knowing you've made it when buskers are singing your songs. If the song is strong enough it'll work with a wide variety of situations and performers and still hold its essence. The downside is that you're also running the risk of being X-Factor-ed, or Westlife'd... Alexandra Burke's cover of "Hallelujah" being an obvious case in point.

While the first album was wonderful, nevertheless it felt a little bit like a sketch... partly because it has reworked Frames songs (and more included in the live show), but also because it's more of a stylistic mixed bag. By contrast Strict Joy sounds more deliberate. The deep pleasure is the balance between them in the harmony singing, and the interplay between her piano and his guitar. Irglová's piano is often childlike in its simplicity and melodic playfulness, full of twinkles and plunks, or otherwise backing Hansard's acoustic with a restrained, hand-in-hand pacing. The album also has a more consistent tone, for me sounding (if anything) inspired by mid-seventies folk-rock of say CSNY, and particularly Van Morrison. All but two tracks are credited to Hansard, but Irglová's two more than hold their own. Throughout they're backed with a gently understated skill by friends and musicians from The Frames.

The album is wistful and sad; there are starry fables, sorrowful regrets, and above all a searingly honest intimacy. Thematically, Hansard is writing about a relationship maturing - the songs are about a man who finally stops running away when things get serious, about facing up to broken promises and disappointments, and about finding in the end a kind of workable redemption in love - where moments of ecstasy still come along now and then. Clearly they're allowing us to be tempted by the thought that the songs are autobiographical, but the songs are really so well crafted that this doesn't necessarily follow (I suspect this usefully helps to add some mystery to aid the marketing - why spoil the illusion?).

It's intricate and subtle, and this makes it hard to nail down. "In These Arms" is a gorgeous love song as good as anything they've done. "Fantasy Man" is a sophisticated folk in a traditional style with Irglová singing lead. "Paper Cup"... sounds (surprisingly) a little like Cat Stevens, while "Love That Conquers" has that sun-baked David Crosby 'after-the-summer-of-love' sort of feel.

Highlight for me is the coda that closes out "High Horses", a perfectly, exquisitely balanced change in tone and momentum that shows a true master at work.

But really there's not a fault in the whole thing and I simply can't recommend it highly enough. If you've enjoyed say, Fleet Foxes, or Bon Iver... this will more than live up to expectations.