Album Review: Glen Hansard, All That Was East Is West Of Me Now

Glen Hansard road-tested the songs for this fifth solo album by playing them, unannounced, at a small local pub in Dublin during November 2022. Over the course of a five-date residency, he gauged audience reaction to what he had been working on and judged which songs needed more TLC before being committed to tape. The result is his most rocking album since The Frames’ heyday.

Opener ‘The Feast Of St. John’ could be an out-take from his old band, all descending minor chords and melancholy, delivered with soaring singalong chorus and distorted guitar fugue. Notably, the searing violin at the end comes from none other than Bad Seed and Dirty Three bandleader, Warren Ellis. Regular musical cohorts Dave Odlum, Joe Doyle, Graham Hopkins, Rob Botchnik and Dave Hingerty also number among the album’s credits.

The intense ‘Down On Our Knees’ is Hansard’s old testament, state-of-the-nation address, his almost spoken word delivery noting how “Hijabs are burning, Roe V. Wade keeps overturning”, before ending with a serrated guitar wig-out that wouldn’t be out of place on a Crazy Horse record.

He channels his inner Van Morrison (not for the first time) on ‘No Mountain’, a warm and welcoming message of hope, while the spirit of Leonard Cohen inhabits ‘Sure As The Rain’. Hansard croons in a lower register than usual, emulating the romance of the late, great Canuck as he intones, “The one thing that’s true, the very best of everything is you”, before getting all Gallic.

Hansard’s old friend and comrade, Mic Christopher, is present in both the words and spirit of the lovely ‘Short Life’; ‘Between Us There Is Music’ soars like Sufjan Stevens at his best; and the guitar-driven ‘Bearing Witness’ comes on like a heavier Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy, as the singer lays out his manifesto for a life well lived: “It’s not what you’re given, but what you do with it/ And it’s not the road less travelled, but how you choose to live.”

All That Was East Is West Of Me Now veers from raucous to reflective in the same way The Frames did at their best, and ranks amongst the finest records of Hansard’s career.

8/10