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Glen Hansard leaves the Frames and the Swell Season behind on his solo debut.
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7j Bed] BWij" 7 Iebe 7\\W_h The Swell Season’s Glen Hansard goes it alone on his new disc 7bXkc H[l_[m That Glen Hansard is only now releasing a solo album after two decades feels like something of a technicality. “Rhythm and Repose” will seem familiar to both fans of his Irish rock band the Frames and latecomers who didn’t stumble on his brood-then-belt style until his starring role in the 2006 indie smash film “Once,” which earned him an Academy Award for songwriting.
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In his past projects, Hansard wrote most of the music. Here he finally gets sole billing for a new batch of restrained what-wentwrong songs, but without the slow burns to purges of wailed angst that’s set his career apart. There are exceptions. “Bird of Sorrow” plinks around on a piano before Hansard rips “I’m not leav-
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“You Will Become” The tense opener has an acoustic march capped over and over with a bass-y and buzzing pluck of Hansard’s top guitar string. It taps the brakes just as it ramps up, a sign of what’s to come for the next hour. (AP)
ing” to rattle the slow ballad. “High Hope” delivers a more satisfying scream-a-long. “What Are We Gonna Do” is a quiet chiller that features an assist from Marketa Irglova, Hansard’s “Once” co-star and sidekick in the Swell Season. Hansard tours the U.S. later this year with Eddie Vedder, whose own recent solo album after 20 years fronting Pearl Jam was a ukulelestrumming getaway from his day job. But Hansard’s still on the clock. As the former Dublin street busker reminisces in the country downer “Maybe Not Tonight,” this first solo plunge is merely echoes of another time. PAUL J. WEBER (AP) 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Sept. 19, 7 p.m., $30; 202-265-0930, 930.com. (U Street)