RELEASED 26.10.2009
1. Low Rising 2. Feeling the Pull 3. In These Arms 4. The Rain 5. Fantasy Man 6. Paper Cup 7. High Horses 8. The Verb 9. I Have Loved You Wrong 10. Love That Conquers 11. Two Tongues 12. Back Broke
The Swell Season are Glen Hansard (from the Irish band the Frames) and Marketa Irglova (classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist). In 2007, Once, a film about two people meeting and falling in love on the streets of Dublin, became an indie phenomenon, as audiences everywhere responded to the unassuming charm of the two leads, Glen and Marketa, and the beautiful music they made together. On the way to going gold, the Once soundtrack brought the Swell Season onto the stage of the Academy Awards, where the band won the Best Original Song award, and into the hearts of the audience and host Jon Stewart. Since then they have toured to sold-out venues as the Swell Season, Once has become a perennial top DVD rental and seller, and now the film is in development for a Broadway musical to open early in 2010. Now comes the much anticipated follow-up, Strict Joy, and from the first notes of first track Low Rising, the musical magic audiences found in Once is back. The band returns to map the rocky peaks and valleys of relationships in songs like the haunting I Have Loved You Wrong, a Marketa feature, and the driving, anthemic The Rain. A feature documentary will make the festival rounds this fall, covering the making of Once and Glen and Marketa s musical coming together, but in the meantime, the beautiful songs of Strict Joy will tell their story.