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').

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).

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.