Worth Playing More than Once

A beautiful album in its own right, the Once soundtrack amazes even those who haven't seen the movie (like me). Killer melodies and earthy instrumentation give the album a humbly ambitious feel that works perfectly.

Although one might assume this album has overly-pompous-art-house prior to listening, the album also has a song called "Broken-Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy." The song begins with the phrase "Ten years ago..." that melodically and lyrically echoes "Long Black Veil," where the lover suffers the death penalty to avoid admitting that he slept with his best friend's wife. Here, there is a similar love triangle, but the other man is a friend of the woman's rather than the man's, making it a much simpler triangle. Despite being simpler, the song carries a similar emotional weight.

"Long Black Veil" gathers much of its power from the long-standing weight of traditional music; this power reappears elsewhere in Once. The cellos and violins in "Gold," for instance, recall traditional celtic music. If asked to name instruments common to celtic music, these would be two of the last instruments I named, but they add a noticeable Irish flavor to this song. (As does the vocalist Fergus O' Farrell; what a great name! He sounds particularly Irish on phrases like "and if a door be closed.")

"Fallen From the Sky" and "Trying To Pull Myself Away" sound to me like stolen melodies. "Trying To Pull Myself Away" specifically sounds like something 90s, perhaps by the Gin Blossoms, though I can't place it. The songs sound instantly familiar, and I've tried my best to track down their source; unable to do so I can only conclude what this album shows all along: Glen Hansard has tapped into the collective unconscious.