Album Review: Glen Hansard, Don+t Settle (Vol 1, Transmissions East)

Having honed his live chops over many years not only as a solo artist, but also with the celebrated groups The Frames and The Swell Season, Glen Hansard is rightly regarded as a masterful live performer. Recorded over two nights last year in Berlin’s Funkhaus – an historic former radio facility – Don+t Settle (Vol 1, Transmissions East) draws from all stages of the singer’s storied career, making for a powerful and spellbinding listen.

The record kicks off with the title track, which builds from atmospheric ballad to stirring rocker, with a notably streak of defiance: “When they pin you to the corner / Pay no need to their dronin’ on”.

Filled with apocalyptic imagery, ‘Down On Our Knees’ is a driving, intense number with echoes of Joy Division, while the haunting ‘Back Broke’ recalls Leonard Cohen at his bittersweet best.

Showing hugely impressive range, Hansard is as comfortable tackling the Frames classic ‘Fitzcarraldo’ – which, like much of the band’s output, makes inspired use of violin – as the folk standard ‘Carrickfergus’. Rounding the show out in style, Hansard signs off with the exquisite ‘Wreckless Heart’, with its observation that “Torn apart is how you feel / But it was all for love”.

Throughout it all, the singer is more than ably backed by a virtuoso band, including Frames duo Joe Doyle and Graham Hopkins, and Ruth O’Mahony-Brady, currently touring with Gorillaz. Terrific stuff.

8/10