The Spade
Release Date: August 30th via Dangerbird Records

01. Bodegas and Blood
02. Every Single Body Else
03. Sweethearts
04. Summer of 89
05. Day Drunk
06. Synthesizers
07. Dublin Crow
08. Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find
09. Bullet Belt
10. Suckerpunch

Like 2008′s Sycamore Meadows, this release is best consumed as a whole, the energy of each song elevated and strengthened by the track preceeding it. The stamina of The Spade seems neverending, pausing just once to take a breath by way of “Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find,” the only ballad featured on the album.

Because it’s Butch, the lyrics are often written with a wink and a nudge, never taking the music too seriously and maintaining a playful attitude by keeping everyone in on the joke. Many of the songs feature Butch/band banter interspersed between huge chrouses and catchy hooks, keeping the vibe lively, anthemic and perhaps moderately drunk.

Initial standouts on The Spade are found in “Sweethearts,” a mid-tempo love song with a hook as sticky as the lyrics are sweet, the chorus of “Synthesizers,” a song that seems to remind people of a Dexy’s Midnight Runners jam, and “Dublin Crow,” an Irish-influenced, harmony-heavy folk song that warns If I’m drownin’, please don’t save me ’cause I gotta save myself. Though each of the songs are capable of standing alone, they are much stronger as a unit, proving that Butch Walker is willing to put his producer credit where his mouth is in the battle to keep albums relevant in the fight against single-serving music consumption.

Of his recent work, The Spade seems to be Butch Walker’s biggest push to expand his already-expansive must-hear live setlist. Every song on the album stands to take on a more feral, fist-pumping persona in a live setting, and to become a true Butch Walker fan is to see him live at least four times.

Learn the lyrics to The Spade, then go sing along:

10.06.11 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt
10.07.11 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
10.08.11 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
10.12.11 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fineline
10.13.11 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
10.14.11 – Detroit, MI @ Magic Bag
10.15.11 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
10.16.11 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement
10.18.11 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
10.19.11 – Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
10.20.11 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club AE
10.21.11 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony
10.22.11 – Boston, MA @ Royal
10.24.11 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater
10.25.11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10.26.11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
10.27.11 – Baltimore, MD @ Ramshead Live
10.28.11 – Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre
10.31.11 – Orlando, FL @ The Social
11.02.11 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ The Culture Room

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Buy The Spade on iTunes or over on Amazon.
Get more Butch Walker news at facebook.com/butchwalker.

After a Kickstarter project (fueled and funded by their ardent and devoted fanbase) and months of free downloads, Nashville’s Parachute Musical will officially release their third full-length studio album, Kill It Cut It Down to the masses.

Kill It Cut It Down
Release Date: August 23rd, independent release

01. Back To Life
02. Reflection
03. Back To The Bottom
04. Stubborn Young Manhood
05. Kill It Cut It Down
06. Nothing Wrong
07. You Plus Me And All Your Friends
08. You Could Take A Lot
09. Hometown
10. On The Ground
11. Losing You

From the first note of “Back To Life,” the album’s opener, the tone and cadence of Kill It Cut It Down become immediately evident. The aggressive-but-bright pop-rock anthem begins with frontman Josh Foster pounding a rhythm into his piano keys, followed by a flood of lyrics that are generally grittier than the glossy and polished music accompanying them imply. The texture created by the seemingly-intentional contrast between melody and lyrics keeps the music smart, leaving room for versatility within each track. Despite the candid nature of Foster’s lyrics, Kill It Cut It Down is not at all transparent.

Produced by Jim Wirt (Fiona Apple, Incubus) in Cleveland, Ohio during the dead of winter, Parachute Musical further exemplify their proclivity to finding the harmony in contradictions. Describing their month in Cleveland as “the coldest month of our lives,” the final product sounds like a sunny and colorful summer album, untouched by freezing temperatures and Christmas carols. The music on Kill It Cut It Down subsides and escalates when you need it to, but the band reels it in during some of the crescendos, safeguarding the songs from falling victim to fist-pumping pop-rock melodrama.

The most impressive part of this album may be Josh Foster’s vocals. Powerful and melodic, it can sometimes be difficult to focus on what he’s saying because he makes it all sound so good. The band sounds solid during the loud moments, but the quieter moments of the songs shine a necessary spotlight on Foster’s lyrics and vocals, a trick best played on “Back To the Bottom,” when the music noticeably takes a backseat to each verse so the story of Foster’s past can momentarily steal the limelight.

“Losing You” is the album’s closer as well as its brightest diamond. A slow-build ballad about the beginning of the end of a relationship, the vocals and instruments on this song soar in a flourish of talent and heartbreak. The end of the album is the best place for this track because, as great as the rest of the album is, this one is difficult to get past.

Kill It Cut It Down asserts its solidity in finding perfect balance in the midst of contrast. Rather than creating a sloppy and contradictory album, Parachute Musical have found logic in the conflicting components of their music and created a lively and reflective album that will probably sound equally as fantastic when you hear it live.

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Get your own copy of Kill It Cut It Down at parachutemusical.spinshop.com.
For more on Parachute Musical and their music, go to parachutemusical.com.

Ritual Union
Release Date: July 26th via Peacefrog/EMI

01. Ritual Union
02. Little Man
03. Brush The Heat
04. Shuffle A Dream
05. Please Turn
06. Crystalfilm
07. Precious
08. Nightlight
09. Summertearz
10. When I Go Out
11. Seconds

In many ways, this band, at this time, is the perfect redemptive convergence of music-world happenings: hip-hop and R&B have shifted from legit artistry to moving units in mainstream culture; synth-pop is really happening in underground circles but mostly too obscure and inaccessible to uninitiated music fans; soul singers have little audience left and too often rely on old, worn-out formulas for their craft; indie music is strong as ever but also as non-mainstream as ever with very few exceptions. All these problems are solved in Little Dragon, bringing in a well-proven toolbox of electronic savvy and synth sorcery from keyboardist Håkan Wirenstrand, hip-hop-level beatsmanship from drummer Erik Bodin, ambient mastery and diversity from multi-instrumentalist Fred Wallin, and peerless, unifying soul flavor fusing it all together courtesy of singer Yukimi Nagano, whose smooth and sultry voice flows seemlessly between this menagerie of styles.

Since most of these unassuming Swedes have been playing together for over a decade now, their sound is incredibly cohesive for being so indefinable, and the songs on this album add layers to their formidable sound. Elements of dream-pop and electronica infuse late-night dance floor fillers like “Brush the Heat” and lead single “Nightlight” with hazy, shimmering undertones, and the shadow-edged bounce of cuts like “Break the Shuffle” and “Crystalfilm” is a brand of dance music all its own in our scene right now, lush yet uncluttered and ominous in its pacing and promise.

It’s no big surprise that the band has been recruited by such notables as Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn and TV on the Radio’s David Sitek to collaborate on their recent releases (Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach has two LD songs, and their track on Sitek’s Maximum Balloon side project is stuck on repeat in my braincase), and have made big name fans like The Roots’ ?uestlove and the DJs at taste-making LA radio station KCRW. This is a band that has been uniting their diverse influences into a rare, intelligent breed of danceable synth-pop that doesn’t require checking your IQ at the door to enjoy, and this album brings the strongest set of songs in this vein yet. If you haven’t heard of Little Dragon in mainstream media yet, just wait– this is a band poised for greatness and whose notoriety is richly deserved.

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For more on Little Dragon, visit little-dragon.se.
Buy Ritual Union on iTunes.

On her new release When You Grow Up (out May 3rd on Blue Note Records), Ahn steps past the all-around showcase of her debut and lays down a lovingly-knitted concept album, a 12-song cycle starting from the jungle gym of adolescence and slowly winding through a toybox of themes, from life’s direction to love both new and worn to, well, growing up. But this is all academic; When You Grow Up is not an album to be mused upon like a wall painting, it is music to pick up and foxtrot around the room with, to use for making sandcastles, to take to the curio shop. And it’s an unabashedly honest portal from our childhood hopes and dreams to whatever comes after.

Amazing and form-fitted production and arrangements are contributed to this album by Ethan Johns. He always finds the perfect sounds to frame the song, and each of these tracks is skillfully adorned with as much or as little accoutrement as is precisely needed, from the strings on “Lost Cause” to the barely-discernable blip-beat on the jaunty “Oo La La” and on and on. Priscilla pulls in some choice friends and collaborators as well, including Eleni Mandell, Jake Blanton, Sia Furler, Inara George (The Bird and the Bee), and serves up a charming duet with singer/songwriter Charlie Wadhams. And, of course, her trademark backing vocals and loops pop up in just the right places to weave in backdrops of slight and shimmering grace.

The songs themselves form a comfortably cohesive arc all the way through, each advancing the narrative through its own character. The opening title track sets the tone perfectly with elementary-school imagery and playful piano bounding down the hopscotch path. “One Day I Will Do” wonders wide-eyed which path to take; “Oo La La” is a carefree mosey through an unplanned sunny afternoon in the city. Ahn’s rendering of Benji Hughes’ “Vibe So Hot” is a smoldering surprise, silkenly cooing to her love, You can have me really anytime you want / I want you now over a bouncy keyboard groove. “City Lights (Pretty Lights)” advances a few years and sheds some naiveté (with a serenely operatic bonus exitlude), and both “I Don’t Have Time to Be in Love” and “Cry Baby” question love in its turns, the former in innocent lament and the latter with a darker edge and killer lead-off hook. “Lost Cause” soul-searches to an almost country feel and breath-taking strings and backing vox, leading to a gorgeous, layered return to an “Empty House” which is almost a tone poem in its lonely, restrained resignation; meanwhile “I Will Get Over You” makes smart use of a minor-major shift to quietly assert its confidence in the aftermath. “The Elf Song” is a standalone piece of pixie poetry, a wispy waltz with an endearing ending. The album glides gracefully to a close with Ahn looking back and resignedly intoning You were my one and only / The only one I ever learned to love on the fittingly-titled “Torch Song,” pulling the curtain on a truly wonderful and more focused second album.

A fan of Priscilla Ahn’s since she was backing up Josh Radin in the mid-’00s Hotel Cafe days, I’m so glad to see her get better and better and rope more and more talented people into her work. Whenever I grow up, I hope I’m able to retain even a fraction of the sense of wide-eyed wonder that permeates these excellent songs. Great job, P.

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For more on Priscilla Ahn, visit priscillaahn.com.
Pre-order When You Grow Up on Amazon.

The Other Side of Zero
Release Date: October 26th via Verve Forecast

01. Time (We All Fall Down)
02. You and Me
03. Julian, Darling
04. Thank You For Nothing
05. Go Away My Lover
06. The Horse and the Missing Cart
07. Open Book
08. Worn Out Tune
09. The Other Side of Zero
10. Dreamcatcher
11. Do Not Hang Your Head

In this light, Brooklyn songwriter Elizabeth Ziman and her “Catapult” (consisting of ace drummer Danny Molad and other assorted quality players) have the deck mightily stacked in their favor. E+TC’s first full-length album (2009′s Taller Children) delivered a gorgeous and giddy collection of fully-formed tracks running the gamut from childlike wonder to world-weary philosophy and if that release was the sum of their work being born into the world, then their new album finds them looking back on that process and looking forward with a smarter, more refined purpose.

It may be a bit clichéd to say these songs sound older and wiser, but The Other Side of Zero does highlight a bit of a shift from young and playful to wizened but appreciative. Starting out strong and grounded with “(Time) We All Fall Down,” Ziman displays sober, steady perspective, decreeing “You shouldn’t try to push the planets ’round / It’s enough to put our next foot on the ground,” the lyric riding a measured, slowly marching piano and expertly restrained rhythm section. From there the Catapult launches into a seamless pop contender with the brightly bouncing “You & Me,” displaying a firm command of sticky-sweet melody which is so present in so many of their creations.

The greatest (or at least my favorite) quality in this band’s sizable bag of tools is their spot-on ability to compose and arrange songs in unexpected, inventive ways. Low-rolling missive “Julian, Darling,” the slow and yearning “Open Book,” and shadow-casting loomer “Worn Out Tune” all start out simply enough, but once you’re hooked by the easily accessible foundation, they shift into unpredictable sonic territory with stop-time rhythms and time signatures, unique chord chemistry, slightly off-kilter guitar lines, and always-captivating melodies and lyrical marksmanship. The track “Go Away My Lover” needs nothing more than a handclap rhythm and catchy hook to get you embedded immediately, but once it hits the chorus of whistles it becomes a wonderland of subtle percussive delights and in-the-corners accouterments, spinning slowly in a surreal sort of grown-up fairytale.

Elizabeth Ziman’s gift for wordplay is a mighty force throughout this impressive collection, suggesting you “Don’t want to live by too many morals / Despite what your elders whispered in the cradle / Don’t want to write the end before the start” in sly lyrical playground “The Horse & the Missing Cart,” and confessing “I was determined to believe every prayer’s accounted for / Now it’s plain to see, only the wind was listening” on the stunning title cut, which also employs a perfectly-placed pedal steel accompaniment on its way to breaking your heart.

Whether they’re shooting for the stars or simply sitting in a quiet corner watching the world pass by, this is a group of artists capable of ably running every race they attempt, with as formidable an arsenal of songwriting talent as I’ve seen in a band to date. And if the songs themselves are creative treasures, when delivered in Ziman’s devastatingly affecting lilt they’re a perfect fit every time. As stated in slowly meandering centerpiece “Open Book”: “Won’t you take a second look / I promise I’ll be good.” This album is a strong case and a bulletproof second look at compositional talent which is amazingly solid and only growing stronger.

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Get full rundowns on Elizabeth and the Catapult at elizabethandthecatapult.com.
Get the full download of The Other Side of Zero on iTunes.

Where We Are
Release Date: September 20th via Chop Shop Records

01. Could It Be
02. Familiar
03. Unfortunate
04. Frozen
05. I Won’t Fall
06. Nothing Else Is Real
07. Made For Us
08. Line In The Sand
09. To Protect
10. Where We Are

Fading in with a swirling barrage of atmospheric layering, the Portland duo’s Chop Shop Records debut album Where We Are launches into a cool, deliberately composed voyage of elegant, electronic dance/pop built on strong songcraft and incorporating deceptively catchy hooks at every turn. Comprised of guitarist/keyboardist/producer Ian Mackintosh and bassist/keyboardist/producer Ben Braun, both hailing from strong songwriting and performing pedigrees, this project takes traditional dance floor energy and adds sophisticated production and synth-infused vocals to create a perfect late-night cocktail of uptempo electronica and dense, literate songwriting. “We both wanted to create something exciting and innovative, but that’s also familiar,” says Mackintosh via the band’s website. “It has to sound different, but it also has to give people something to hold onto. It has to give people hope.”

That hope comes in many forms, oscillating from big existential questions (“Nothing Else is Real,” album opener “Could It Be”) to soul-searching vulnerability (“Frozen” “To Protect”) and beyond, carefully cloaking these anthemic songs in shades of crystalline glimmer. This is both a band and an album of layers, drawing you in as a dance group on the surface and slowly, methodically revealing the undercurrents of amazing melodies and arrangements.

Preview: “Could It Be”
»Save It: “Could It Be”

There are very few bands able to achieve this sort of sound, and of those trying few are approaching it from a songwriting standpoint. Mackintosh Braun is a standalone entity of savvy songcrafting in a world of overproduced club beats and guest singers. Their triumph is in not just creating a solid, layered dance/pop record, but in creating one which shifts easily from the dancefloor to the afterparty, to the morning after without missing a beat and reveals its mysteries only with repeat listens.

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Get Where We Are on iTunes.
For more information on Mackintosh Braun, visit mackintoshbraun.com.

Franklin & Vermont
Release Date: June 29th via Rock Ridge Music

01. Hard To Let A Good Love Go
02. Angel
03. Gone
04. Almost You
05. Meant To Be
06. Black Coffee In Bed
07. Come Home To Me
08. Yes I Am
09. In My Place
10. We Got Love
11. This Beautiful Ache

After opening with the strong and upbeat “Hard To Let a Good Love Go,” the album maintains a generally slow-tempo vibe without ever losing steam. Even in the slower moments of Franklin & Vermont, Halter’s voice is solid enough to carry each track, as exhibited on tracks like “Come Home To Me.” Staying true to form and to his fans, two covers are featured on the album: Coldplay’s “In My Place” and a melodic, (thankfully) ’80s-free version of Squeeze’s “Black Coffee In Bed.”

Known for introducing his newest songs to a live audience before including them on his albums, few tracks on this album will be unfamiliar to Ernie Halter’s fans. Though difficult to choose one particular standout track on Franklin & Vermont, “Almost You” highlights Ernie Halter’s ability to depict a tenderness in his lyrics and disposition while maintaining a strength in his vocals and ability, yet again affirming that he is a legitimate and talented singer/songwriter. For the album’s closer, Ernie collaborates with Tony Lucca and Amy Kuney on the piano-driven ballad, “This Beautiful Ache.”

While Ernie Halter’s two previous albums, Congress Hotel and Starting Over, were effective introductions to his talent, Franklin & Vermont establishes what he’s capable of achieving with it.

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Get Franklin & Vermont on iTunes.
Keep up with Ernie Halter at facebook.com/erniehaltermusic.

Compass
Release Date: May 18th via Warp

01. Completely Exposed
02. Your Sweet Boom
03. She Needs Me
04. I Wanna Be Your Telephone
05. Enough’s Enough
06. The Ring
07. You Are Waking
08. I Can Love Again
09. It’s A Kiss
10. Compass
11. Gypsy Blood
12. Coma Chameleon
13. Big Drift
14. You See My Light

Lidell spent his last two albums (2005′s Multiply and 2008′s Jim) breaking down and breaking away from the art-robotic dance floor sound of Super_Collider (his collab with fellow UK techno-savant Cristian Vogel), and by the time Jim rolled out, he had successfully transformed himself from an electro-club Prince junkie to a legit, souled-out R&B crooner with smooth grooves and roughly-honed vocals in the mix. Perhaps the biggest surprise from the opening notes of “Completely Exposed,” Compass’ lead-off track, is the crazy, fuzzed-up beatbox claps and over-modded drum machine textures. As the album smoothly pumps along, it’s clear the landscape has changed, and Lidell is putting the tricks he learned producing all that experimental techno to use in a whole new way. And in listening to the strangely sensual synth chug of “I Wanna Be Your Telephone,” it is also clear that his Prince jones is back with a big, booty-bouncing thump. Luckily, these are welcome changes, since the production choices are not necessarily new for Jamie Lidell, but rather a logical amalgamation of the sounds he achieved with Super_Collider melded seamlessly onto his new, surprisingly top-shelf modern R&B framework.

Some of this re-innovation is no doubt due to the company the man has been keeping: collaborations in the songwriting department include Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (out of Wilco), the brilliant Beck, and many more. Supporting players on these tracks include alt.indie chanteuse Leslie Feist, the powerful Nikka Costa, the entire Grizzly Bear crew, and at one point the NYPD even scores a cast credit. And with the diversity on this album, a large and diverse cast is quite needed. Cuts like “Telephone” and “The Ring” bring a luscious low-end groove to the dance floor; album opener “Completely Exposed” and “She Needs Me” wax as full-on baby-making soul, and more edgy numbers like “Big Drift,” the title track and breakneck “You Are Waking” get downright experimental with their production and instrumentation. It makes for a pretty broad palette, but amazingly nothing sounds out of place, and Lidell draws all these obtuse layers in and blends them together with undetectable magic, all the while turning in the strongest vocal performances of his career, expanding his considerable soul chops with visible confidence.

By the time closing track “You See My Light” slowly fades out into the distance, this LP has run a very different landscape than any R&B or soul album you’ve ever heard. It’s experimental neo-soul, which is somewhat unexplored territory, but it’s most amazing because of how well it works. Jamie Lidell has proven on previous efforts that he knows his way around a production booth but can still make a soulful record with complete, unadorned live instrumentation. With nothing from those two camps left to prove, on this album he gets down to the business of art, assembling this puzzle of normally disparate sounds together with a deliberate hand and an assured vision, crafting a musical journey quite unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. You’ll be hard-pressed to find something out there as unique as this LP, and the fact that it works on the dance floor, in the bedroom, and in the mind-expanding indie realm as well makes it all the more difficult to beat. Amazing leap forward for an artist who is no longer afraid of his past, present, or future.

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For all of your Compass purchasing needs, visit jamielidell.com.

I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart
Release Date: Digital February 9th, Physical Febuary 23rd via One Haven Music

01. Trash Day
02. Pretty Melody
03. Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home
04. Stripped Down Version
05. Canadian Ten
06. Temporary Title
07. She Likes Hair Bands
08. House of Cards
09. They Don’t Know What We Know
10. Days/Months/Years
11. Be Good Until Then

A highly-regarded (and heavily-demanded) music producer, Walker seems to have perfected the art of setting the tone of an album and sticking to it. As a producer and an artist, Walker’s fingerprints are all over each of his records, each song a solid representation of his capabilities in playing both roles. His newest release is well-constructed while the songs often tell stories of hardship in life and in love in a way that is never short on integrity or self-reflection. I Liked It Better distinguishes the symmetry between production value and artistic integrity, never allowing one to dominate the other.

Though the songs he produces for other musicians tend to be more radio-primed than those featured on his solo albums, Walker seems to save his best work for himself. (Sorry, Avril). I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart opens with “Trash Day,” the most suitable track of the album to set the mood for the 11 songs which follow it, and moves seamlessly into “Pretty Melody,” which delivers exactly what the song title implies. Even in its slowest moments, Butch Walker’s fifth solo LP manages to only gain momentum and never loses rectitude. While each song asserts its own identity, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart celebrates the forgotten art of absorbing an album from beginning to end.

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Purchase I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart on iTunes or get yourself an old fashioned, physical copy of the album on CD or vinyl.

Strict Joy
Release Date: October 27, via ANTI-

01. Low Rising
02. Feeling the Pull
03. In These Arms
04. The Rain
05. Fantasy Man
06. Paper Cup
07. High Horses
08. The Verb
09. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

The Frames’ frontman has been making top-shelf tunes for the better part of two+ decades and has made due with many various groupings of musicians, but with The Swell Season, he finally has something that has eluded him for most of those two decades: worldwide attention (thanks to Once, the 2007 film which garnered an Oscar for Best Song, and cemented his working relationship with Czech singer/pianist Marketa Irglova), and the players to really put on a good show with that international spotlight on. Indeed it is Irglova who seems to be the most striking addition to Hansard’s sound, her soft, winsome voice and piano providing sure-handed counterpoint to his heart-worn lead vocal and seasoned guitar playing. She also turns in two powerfully heart-rending lead vocal performances in “Fantasy Man” and “I Have Loved You Wrong” (which she composed as well), and her vocal harmonies complement his in just the right measure at every turn.

Irglova’s piano is but one piece of a masterfully-applied miniature orchestra of support players on this album, with most of Hansard’s current Frames band mates lending in on rhythm, violin, and guitar duties, plus some additional guitar and horns (from Leonard Cohen’s and Levon Helm’s bands, respectively). This ensemble is skillfully utilized, filling in the small spaces of each track with finesse, just the right application of sound when needed. From the subtle string and horn swells in lead-off track “Low Rising,” to the stunningly-arranged vocal interplay in the interludes of first single “In These Arms,” to the unique and refreshingly divergent song structures throughout, the compositional prowess is leaps and bounds beyond the competition on this album, as are the production skills, which are shared between Hansard and indie go-to boardman Peter Katis. You might benefit greatly to consume this LP by headphones, as all these layers are expertly mixed, with not much overlap and never any clutter. The string layers alone are a special treat, even when just a single, sustained violin note, and violinist Colm MacIomare fills in the stratosphere with the right tone every time.

Atop the music, Glen Hansard has authored yet another worthy body of songs dealing with heartbreak, love and loss. While any Frames fans know this is not a new subject for him, the recently-ended romance with his Once co-star Irglova provides fresh framework for these compositions, and they carry more ache throughout the album because of it. Right out the gate, Hansard is proclaiming “I wanna pull back the veils and find out what I’ve done wrong” in opener “Low Rising,” a sentiment of regretful hindsight which rises up repeatedly in tracks to come, from the wishful detachment of “Paper Cup” to the resigned, wry-smiled despair of quick-footed album stunner “The Verb,” which finds Hansard repeating stanzas like “All joy escapes in the dark, and I can’t make this make sense” and “I’m stuck here killing myself, you’re out there drinking somewhere” while Irglova’s counterpoint vocals cascade all around like raindrops bouncing off the cobblestone street. Throughout all this emotional turmoil, however, the mood itself never becomes despairing, which is the true triumph of this set of songs — to examine heartache and sadness and come out better for it, to turn regretful sentiment into life-affirming conviction.

All in all this band has made an album of truly life-affirming sentiment, even if the storybook romance of its core duo has written its final chapter. When the two sing in unison “It’s not just this, it’s everything” on “Two Tongues,” they’re singing for an entire generation of lovers who have passed the point of reconciliation; likewise, when they join to intone “Maybe I was born to hold you in these arms,” they’re capturing the deep-seated hope in all of us to find purpose in comforting our other half, wandering around somewhere waiting for us to discover them. The gorgeous musical accompaniment shines and shimmers in all the right places to buoy these sentiments with sonic display, and even in the overcast moments it’s difficult to not be enchanted by Glen Hansard’s sheer emotive conviction. Closing out “Paper Cup,” singing “Maybe time will provide, give you strength to decide, you know it’s not too late,” one can’t help but believe this is an artist holding firmly onto hope even through the storm, and with a foil like Marketa Irglova and an ensemble like the one The Swell Season currently boasts, he’s got good reason to keep his hopes high.

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For more on The Swell Season, visit theswellseason.com.