The Frames, The Cost
Featured Album
Irish group continues its maturation into a loud and proud rock band with world domination in their sights.
Having set out in 1990 as little more than a scaffold to support the work of singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and his fellow folkie, violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire, the Frames have grown, eight albums later, into a loud and proud rock band with world domination in their sights. Taking on guitarist Rob Bochnik in 2002 added a new boldness and dimension to their sound and supplies here a perfect instrumental foil for Hansard’s increasingly epic vocals. The standout moment on The Cost is the title track, a dramatic, metallic slow-builder which brings to mind early Radiohead. Elsewhere the ghost of Van Morrison in all his old Caledonian soul grandeur stalks "People Get Ready," while Bochnik’s space-echo guitar, propelling Hansard’s voice heavenwards on "True," suggests that the Frames aren’t afraid of squaring up to their Dublin neighbours U2. That their new sonic boots still feel slightly big for the songs is a problem their ambition should soon sort out.
