Once - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Great sound, beautiful lyrics, moving story, engaging characters, excellent singers
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The film Once was released in 2007, and was featured at Sundance film award and achieved a 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly". I didn't see the film in the cinema or buy or rent it on DVD, as I did not know it existed. I watched it recently as a friend's house and really loved it. The story is very well written and really stays with you, but the real highlight is the soundtrack. I really enjoyed the song at the time, and they stayed in my head for weeks after watching the film. After listening again to most the tracks on youtube, I decided to buy the soundtrack to a film I don't even own - it is that good.

The Film

To summarise Once, it is a film / musical / documentary centring around the relationship between the two main characters (played by Irish Glen Hansard and Czech Marketa Irglova) and the development of their street music in Ireland. It was very basically shot by and independent film maker, with Glen and Marketa basically playing themselves within a set of written events. As they are both musicians not actors, a lot of the story is told through song - the Once characters don't even names. However, it is not a traditional musical - they don't just burst into song at any moment, all the songs are included realistically (e.g. scenes busking or in the recording studio). I will not go into to more detail as I'm not reviewing the film itself and don't want ruin the story. All this means that the film is mostly about the original soundtrack, specially written for Once by Hansand an Irglova (plus one song by 'Interference').

The Musicians

Glen Hansard previously played in the Irish band 'The Frames', and appeared in 'The Commitments'. Hansard and Irglova both have music careers, where they sing / play with a variety or people, and they still play together as 'The Swell Season'. The have released a second album after the Once soundtrack called 'Strict Joy', which although not as good as the Once Soundtrack in my opinion, contains many good songs. Their style has Irish and Czech Republic influences. Some of the slower songs and is comparable with other singer -songwriters like Cara Dillion, and have some classical influences (featuring piano and violins). The more uptempo tracks fit more into the folk band or rock band genres, for example Mostly Autumn. For more mainstream comparisons, I find these songs fit into my music collection alongside songs by Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Travis, Keane and The Beatles (slower songs like Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday).

The track listing is as follows;
1. "Falling Slowly"
2. "If You Want Me"
3. "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy"
4. "When Your Mind's Made Up"
5. "Lies"
6. "Gold"
7. "The Hill"
8. "Fallen from the Sky"
9. "Leave"
10. "Trying to Pull Myself Away"
11. "All the Way Down"
12. "Once"
13. "Say It to Me Now"

The Songs

Most of the songs are accompanied by the acoustic guitar, which Glen plays excellently. Some of the songs are accompanied by Marketa on the piano, and some by a full band. Marketa has a soft, almost haunting voice, while Glen's voice is raw and coarser (in a good way) and he sings very emotionally. There is a real chemistry between Glen and Marketa, which is really felt in the beautiful harmonies, particularly in "Falling Slowly" and "If you want me". Glen is the lead singer in most of the songs, but Marketa sings lead vocals in; "The Hill" and "If you want me". Most of the track are slow and beautiful, but "Trying to Pull Myself Away", "Lies" and "When Your Mind's Made Up" are more uptempo with a rock beat.

All the tracks, except for 3 and 6 share a kind of sadness that is really touching. The lyrics are very simple, but honest and the first time I heard "Falling Slowly", my attention was immediately caught and emotionally held after the 4 minute track had finished. However, it was Marketa's song "The Hill", which uniquely has no chorus, which almost me tears (very unusual for me). The lyrics make all the songs very though provoking, but they really touch you when watching the film and the lyrics really relate to the characters in the story and to Hansard and Irglova in real life. You only have to see the film once, for it to stay with you, but I will definitely be watching it again. In the mean time, the soundtrack has become one of my favourite albums.

The song "Gold" by 'Interference' is much softer and more relaxing than the others. I like it, but don't find it very memorable - probably because the main characters do not sing in this song. Also, if you haven't seen the film, the track "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy", may slightly confuse you! It comes from a scene in the film where the two main characters are riding a bus together. If you don't like the song, it is very short or could be easily skipped, but makes me smile whenever it comes on.

Conclusion

I love this album and I can listen to most of the songs again and again. I would recommend to anyone interested music genres relating to acoustic, rock, folk or classical. The album works even without the film, but the songs are so important to the story, listening to the soundtrack is like watching it over again. The film and the soundtrack are available very cheaply from websites like play.com and amazon (under £5 each), making it great value entertainment. A film that really beautiful, touching without being girly, and a musical without being slushy or tacky - Once is perfect. The soundtrack is the heart of the film, or maybe even the purpose of the film and I cannot recommend Once enough. Both the film and the album will stay with me for life.

A fantastic album independent of the film, but together they are outstanding.