-The Swell Season, "Strict Joy" (Anti-)
Boy loses girl, boy meets new girl, boy and girl make lovely, love and pain-filled music.
That's essentially the gist of "Once," the Grammy and Oscar-winning 2007 movie that snagged audiences with its soundtrack featuring the film's stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
Irish singer-songwriter Hansard, frontman of the Frames, and Czech singer-pianist Irglova not only fell in love in real life, but formed a band, the Swell Season.
Then the couple broke up. But that didn't end their musical relationship.
The group's new album, "Strict Joy," while not as immediately ear-grabbing as the "Once" soundtrack, troves that sensitive, post break-up territory with beautiful, mostly subtle tunes in hushed acoustic tones. Recording started in August 2008, just after the split.
Produced by Peter Katis (Interpol), the album showcases Hansard's impassioned voice and lyrics on numbers such as the soulful single "Low Rising," layered with harmonies from Irglova.
It's her gorgeous, understated vibrato, however, that really makes the Swell Season worthy of attention.
Taking lead vocals on only two songs, she squeezes each note with whispered emotion, from lamenting love lost on the bossa nova flavored "Fantasy Man" to "I Have Loved You Wrong."
Backed by a deep, throbbing bass line, Irglova sings as if drowning in the moment, "Forgive me, lover, for I have sinned/ For I have done you wrong."
In interviews, Hansard and Irglova have mentioned their continued partnership as friends and musicians. Like the best ex-lovers who continue to collaborate, they will hopefully mine life's heady peaks and heavy depths on future albums.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: On "Back Broke," a bittersweet ode cementing the relationship's end, Hansard sings with fragile softness, which suits him well.
