Once Was Enough

The Swell Season, the duet of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, made an adorable movie, "Once." It follows two lonely European musicians while they meet, have a pseudo-romance, record an album and move on without each other. The soundtrack is moving and sweet, and the duo won the 2007 Oscar for Best Song Original Song for "Falling Slowly."

But their most recent album, "Strict Joy" is painfully redundant. Hansard's songs are overly-emotional and dreary, and Irglova's wailing just isn't cutting it for me any more. Every song on the album sounds like every other song on the album, which sound just like every song from the soundtrack.

Maybe I liked the soundtrack so much because I could connect the songs to scenes in the movie. "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" just wouldn't be as listenable if it didn't bring me back to that scene on the bus where Hansard plays his haggard, albeit well-loved, guitar.