Glen Hansard's last record, 2015's Didn't He Ramble, was so good there wasn't enough space on it for the title track.
On his new four-song EP, A Season on the Line, Hansard wastes no time getting to the title track of last year's album. Recorded on an off day between shows, "Didn't He Ramble" is an electric, full-band track with widescreen ambition, while "Way Back in the Way Back When" is a spaghetti-western vehicle for the Irish troubadour's familiar yowl.
Acoustic tracks "Let Me In" and "Return" were recorded during the Didn't He Ramble sessions, and it shows. The confidence and bravado of the first half of the EP gives way in the second half to the prettiness and intimacy that defined the sound of its deeply felt predecessor. "If you're gone / Let me know / So I can fall apart," croons Hansard before listing off a series of heartbreaking questions to someone I sincerely hope is coming back.
There are only four songs here, but A Season on the Line feels like more.
(ANTI- Records)On his new four-song EP, A Season on the Line, Hansard wastes no time getting to the title track of last year's album. Recorded on an off day between shows, "Didn't He Ramble" is an electric, full-band track with widescreen ambition, while "Way Back in the Way Back When" is a spaghetti-western vehicle for the Irish troubadour's familiar yowl.
Acoustic tracks "Let Me In" and "Return" were recorded during the Didn't He Ramble sessions, and it shows. The confidence and bravado of the first half of the EP gives way in the second half to the prettiness and intimacy that defined the sound of its deeply felt predecessor. "If you're gone / Let me know / So I can fall apart," croons Hansard before listing off a series of heartbreaking questions to someone I sincerely hope is coming back.
There are only four songs here, but A Season on the Line feels like more.
