BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

It's hard to tell if we fell in love with this CD because we saw the film "Once" this weekend -- or because the songs are just so damn beguilingly romantic.

But then again, it's hard to separate a film about two musicians in Dublin who fortuitously meet and then pursue a quirky, short-term, collaboration, filled with an unspoken passion that emerges so compellingly in their songs.

The two leads are Glen Hansard, of the underappreciated (in the U.S.) Irish band The Frames, and Markéta Irglová, a classically-trained Czech musician, who becomes the catalyst for Hansard's transition from a street busker to the first stage of becoming a recording artist. (Remember the film is fiction, not a documentary, but the songs are achingly real.)

Unlike the commercially successful "Music and Lyrics" with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, "Once" appears genuine and poignantly real. Shot in Dublin, it doesn't offer Hollywood solutions to personal relationships.

But that brings us back to the CD, which consists of refreshingly honest and moving songs of love, lost love, and love that cannot be.

How wonderful, amidst such political turmoil today, to be immersed in a world of youthful passion, but not so young as to have not yet experienced the hurt of lost love and lost opportunities.

The songs of "Once" are in the tradition of the folk ballad: emotional, rousing, and with thoughtful lyrics.

How often do you hear that anymore?

If you want to get a sense of the singing of Hansard and Irglová's collaboration on "Once," to this You Tube collection of videos: Once . Many of the videos are pirated and don't have the best sound quality, but you can get the feeling of the CD. Note particularly the harmonies: Hansard and Irglova make beautiful music together.

It is so rare to find acoustic music with such emotional candor and sense of longing anymore. There is an authenticity to "Once" that is disarming because the world of "branded" pop has frozen out voices like Hansard and Irglova from the airwaves.

That is why you'll have to buy "Once." The earth won't shake when you listen to the CD, but you'll remember what it was like to feel a song again, feel it in your heart: to be young enough to still be filled with longing, but old enough to know the pain of a lost love.

Just listen to the lyrics and rendition of "Falling Slowly."

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS