The Frames, "Burn The Maps"

Anything that can remotely resemble widespread commercial success escaped the Frames for most of their career when their last album, Set List, broke into the Top Ten in their native Ireland. Almost a year later, it was released on these shores as the first album in a new deal with Anti, garnering the band more attention in America as a band to watch intently. Their newest album was released in Ireland several weeks ago, and Anti will release it in the US and Europe in February. Until then, rabid fans can order through select dealers linked on the band's website to absorb the finest work in the band's decade-plus lifespan, as well as their most coordinated and complete effort to date.Plateau Records/ Anti

Glen Hansard has grown by leaps and bounds as a songwriter in recent years, and the arrangements have slowly become more direct and openly ferocious than before, switching energy level on a dime and going full tilt before slowing for nigh-breathtaking moments of solemnity. In that regard he's found his voice two-fold, as subject matter turns from an argument that spawned a fight ("Happy") to relationship issues ("Fake," Finally"). At every turn, Hansard bears the potential to unleash into full-voiced howl, but he contains it for just the right moment each time, and sometimes opts for the more respectful and pretty falsetto. Meanwhile, the ensemble is beset with fine musicians who create an ebb and flow even in the hastiest of tempos, the highlight of which is the dissolution of "Dream Awake," where the drums approach the essence of breakbeat, the bass thumps with flurry, and guitar bends soar over it all until the violin takes its lead and betters it. To couple this with words like "For every time I came home screaming and got sent away with no warmth at all" creates the complete package that holds together under any scrutiny. The recording is the most faithful to the vibrant live shows the Frames are reknowned for, courtesy of new member Rob Bochnik and former member David Odlum, and the proper settings like Electrical Audio and Black Box Studios. Altogether, this set pulls back the curtain on their recorded output, revealing the Frames as the most vital band to come out of Ireland in twenty years at least, and maybe the most poetic that ever came from hence. It might just be their time, finally, to get the recognition they so richly deserve. 

samples:

• Happy
• Dream Awake
• Fake