- I’ll start off by being upfront and saying I am a huge Glen Hansard fan. From the beginning of his musical endeavours in the revered Irish rock band The Frames, then onto the post-Oscar winning band Swell Season and now into his solo career: I really love everything that he has been involved in. So, when I heard he was releasing Between Two Shores I was immediately excited to hear what the great songwriter had put together.
The title Between Two Shores is a sailing phrase about being in the midpoint of a journey, where there is no clear shore either behind or in front of you. It’s an apt title for this album because I myself am very much in between on whether I like it or not. So, to be clear, it's fine: it hits the right notes of Hansard familiarity and is just a good collection of songs. You could imagine him slipping one or two into his impressive live sets and you wouldn’t be bothered about it. As an album however? It has to be said it is very unfocused and ... there's just something off about it.
His first solo record Rhythm and Repose in 2012 solidified all the elements that Glen had been involved in as a musician, bringing them to his solo work. It was stripped back, with his storytelling abilities on full display, accompanied by that startling bredth of talent which allows him to write everything from the most powerful of acoustic tracks all the way to wild ensemble pieces. He continued this on 2015’s Didn’t He Ramble which was just fantastic and earned a Grammy nomination. It had tender moments of honesty, full brass band building tracks and some of those classic Irish folk nods that are never far away from his work. These albums had clear direction through clear arrangement and a mindfulness of how the songs worked as a part of the record.
Where Between Two Shores differs is that this record just simply seems to be a collection of songs. Maybe this is due to the slightly weird way it came about. Hansard recorded this particular material back in 2013, a year after his debut and a year before beginning to write for his second album. He says that he re-wrote the lyrics for the songs and maybe that explains why it feels so disjointed: a revision of a transition, between successful albums.
There are still plenty of praiseworthy elements. As it is his first time producing his own work he does a great job, sonically it's very fine. There's a balance as the slower songs engage you with every chord and the larger horn ensembles build into a satisfying, full-bodied sound. Key tracks to look out for are Roll On Slow where he really lets his horn section come out to shine which has become such a staple of his live show. In the middle of the album three tracks -Wreckless Heart, Movin’ On and Setting Forth- are archetypal Glen, telling a story with vocals of such raw passion and intensity.
For all that, if you'll forgive me riffing on the title: at every stage I have this unnerving feeling of being lost at sea. This journey lacks the justification for its existence. Glen has often been compared to Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen and like those musicians after thirty-eight years of being a musician there’s bound to be some less engaging albums that aren’t that great. Like I said if you put all of his work on shuffle and one of these songs popped up you wouldn’t be displeased because it is familiar and the production is wonderful. The album Between Two Shores is just a little too unanchored to really be an essential part of what is a brilliant body of work.
- Jack McDonnell.