The Swell Season – Strict Joy Review

Posted by Michael James on 11.02.2009

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova gave us one of the best films of 2007. Can their second musical collaboration reach their own lofty standards?

When Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova collaborated on the 2007 film Once, it was a revelation. The film perfectly captured the beauty and magic of two kindred musical spirits and their collaboration to create a series of simple yet powerful songs. It also set my expectations for their real world musical collaborations sky high. And now, despite the end of their off-screen romantic relationship, they have released a second collaborative album, Strict Joy.


1. Low Rising
2. Feeling the Pull
3. In These Arms
4. The Rain
5. Fantasy Man
6. Paper Cup
7. High Horses
8. The Verb
9. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

The first thing I noticed is that the album doesn’t really involve all that much collaboration, as none of the songs are no true duets. In fact on 10 of Strict Joy’s 12 songs, Irglova’s vocal contributions are limited to background harmonies. I found this disappointing, but I may have mistakenly assumed their Once characters as much more similar to their real life collaborative process than it actually is. In fact, it’s probably for the best that Hansard serves as The Swell Season’s primary vocalist. His unpolished vocals and tracks like the album opening “Low Rising” are some of the most expressive and mesmerizing I’ve heard in recent years.

Hansard shows an impressive range. “In These Arms” is intimate and muted, with a delicate melody and sparse instrumentation, which provide an excellent showcase for the romantic lyrics about realizing that someone really is the one: “You were restless/I was somewhere less secure/So I went running to the road/and so now this the longest of places I was/I quit my rambling and came home/cause maybe I was born to hold you in these arms.” The sequencing of the album is also inspired, as the relationship high note of “In These Arms” is followed by “The Rain,” which finds an apologetic Hansard addressing his girlfriend (presumably Irglova)’s dissatisfaction with their relationship.

The two songs which feature Irglova as the lead vocalist, “Fantasy Man” and “I Have Loved You Wrong” are considerably less interesting. Her singing voice is unbearably fragile and thin. As a result, the songs can’t support anything more than bare bones instrumentation, lest the vocals be overwhelmed. With nowhere to build, both songs seem to last forever. However, this may also be because at over 5 minutes each, they are the two longest songs on Strict Joy.

Even beyond the two Irglova-centric songs, The Swell Season could definitely use a better editor to help them trim the fat, as too many of their songs seem to meander aimlessly. Now I don’t demand that all songs top out at three and a half minutes—in fact, many songs on Strict Joy which seem interminable are actually not all that long. Rather, they just never build to any type of high point. As an example, the album closing “Back Broke” features some interesting flamenco-esque guitar work, but lacks any sort of chorus, or even a discernable melody. Similarly, “High Horses,” which starts with promise as a relatively upbeat song, delivers too little for its 5 minute running time.

Much better is “The Verb,” which uses the dual male-female vocals for interesting effect. The doubled lyric of “I’m tired of fighting she says” provides an almost cinematic feel, as though Hansard is narrating a scene starring Irglova. The percussion-driven instrumentation on the choruses is also a rarity for the album, which more often than not is built on acoustic guitars and an occasional piano. But even here, the song goes on for 30 seconds too long with no discernable benefit.

Strict Joy may have fallen victim to my overly inflated expectations. Even though it’s a decent collaboration and perfectly pleasant, I found myself wanting more. It remains to be seen whether The Swell Season will ever again reach the euphoric heights of their Once collaborations.

If you’re like me, most of your music ends up in an endless .mp3 “shuffle.” In order to preserve your valuable disk space, here’s what’s Ipod-worthy from Strict Joy:

“Low Rising”; “In These Arms”; “The Rain”; “Paper Cup”; “The Verb”

The 411: A certain drop off was to be expected after Once, and drop off The Swell Season did. Most of the elements that highlighted their previous works are still present, particularly Hansard's emotional vocals and evocative lyrics. They just don't add up to produce the same results.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]