Album Review: The Swell Season, Forward

When Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová played a few gigs together in 2022, their first as The Swell Season in some years, they instantly rekindled the musical chemistry that brought them to worldwide acclaim and Oscar-winning glory.

More live dates and a single, 2023’s ‘The Answer Is Yes’, followed, leading on to this third LP, their first in 16 years. A relatively short eight tracks (which doesn’t include ‘The Answer Is Yes’), Forward makes up for its brevity with a surfeit of beauty.

Opener, the wide-eyed ‘Factory Street Bells’, sees Glen waxing paternal about his infant son, his voice soaring on a chorus that surges for the heavens, as he reminds the boy that even when away on tour, the child is always in his thoughts.

Elsewhere, ‘People We Used To Be’ is a piano-led treatise of reminiscence and regret, the duo taking turns on the verses, duetting on the chorus where their voices entwine sinuously. The stunning ‘I Leave Everything To You’ is built on tender and fragile piano, Markéta’s voice trembling as she almost begs, “Things are always working out for you and me…. Aren’t they?" Glen takes lead vocals on ‘Stuck In Reverse’, a string-drenched, brass-inflected meditation about moving on from a failed relationship.

The magnificent and instantly memorable ‘Great Weight’ comes on like an old southern spiritual, Glen’s voice a strident instrument amid the slinky fugue of strings, brass and more traditional rock instrumentation, before ‘Hundred Words’ ends things on a positive note, both voices pleading with the listener to keep the faith.

A more-than-welcome return.

8/10

Out now