Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 25 / 5 / 2008

Label: Anti Records
Format: CDS

intro

Oscar-winning song for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, which, despite its fourth seperate release, still remains absolutely exceptional

The surprise cinema hit of last year, ‘Once’ took Glen Hansard to the Oscars. Alhough his band the Frames have been criminally overlooked for years, singer and songwriter Hansard has now been in two hit films (he was the guitarist in the Commitments). But the Oscar for Best Song for 'Falling Slowly' was an overdue recognition that his real gifts come as a songwriter. A year ago, the band were playing to an almost entirely Irish crowd at King’s Cross Scala, but this year has seen him pop up in the Guardian, on Later with Jools Holland and even performing live on BBC Breakfast. ‘Falling Slowly’ was first recorded for Hansard and Czech pianist Marketa Irglova’s album ‘The Swell Season’, well before the pair too up their film roles. In pumped up form, it was then the centrepiece of the Frames’ 2006 masterpiece, ‘The Cost’. Tweaked slightly, it appeared again on the soundtrack to ‘Once’, (in the film, he teaches it to her over the piano her character cannot afford to buy in a local music shop), where it has finally been recognised as the tense, dramatic and passionate love song it is. Ignoring for a second that this fourth separate release of the song may be a tad redundant, it really is an exceptional track. No wonder it sits proudly at the top of my ITunes most played list.

Track Listing:-

Label Links:-