GIG REVIEW / GLEN HANSARD / LIVERPOOL / APRIL 2024

Glen Hansard. Image (c) @rybazoxo

Saturday 13th April 2024 St George’s Hall, Liverpool, UK 

Words by Ryan Oxley 

For me, ONCE is one of the finest indie music films ever. Released in 2007, the film is a musical that stars, and has a soundtrack co-written by Glen Hansard. Before the film's release, I did recognise Glen from the cast of The Commitments, the celebrated Irish film based on a book by Roddy Doyle but I wasn't aware of his incredible talent. 

Glen Hansard. Image (c) by @rybazoxo 

Glen Hansard is a journeyman/troubadour of a musician, and following 'ONCE' I became an immediate fan of his solo work, The Swell Season, and The Frames. Based in the UK, I doubted I'd ever get a chance to see this regular European touring artist (who’s also hugely popular in the USA) then I found out he was playing a gig in my favourite music city (sorry Manchester) I grabbed a ticket online, booked a bedsit for the night, and got a train to Liverpool. Promoting his latest album ‘All That Was East Is West Of Me Now’, I downloaded it on Spotify and had the tracks on repeat.  I was excited to see if Glen would do any songs from the ONCE soundtrack, and he peppered them throughout the gig, tracks from the new album are also folksy balladeering stories that enamoured this small venue, and enthusiastic crowd. 

St George's Hall, Liverpool. Image (c) by @rybazoxo

Of course, I took a few images, and as you can see, St George’s Hall is a beautiful venue - historically, aesthetically, and acoustically. Glen is also a great storyteller - in between songs, he told a few funny tales of life, love, ancestry, and everything you’d expect from an Irishman. ONCE is a timeless classic, and it was worth waiting 17 years to see Glen Hansard live.

Watch my YouTube video of ‘When Your Minds Made Up’ from this special gig here 

Learn more about Glen Hansard & buy his latest album here 

www.ryanoxleywriter.blogspot.com 

‘WILD GOD’- Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds ***** Album Review

 

Words by Ryan Oxley      

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released their latest album ‘Wild God’ at the end of last month and the reviews have been unanimous, in what has been described as a biblical return to form.

As an artist, Nick Cave has been around for decades, and so have I, yet I only recently discovered his music via the Peaky Blinders soundtrack. Heading to Spotify (a premium member), I devoured his back catalogue and became instantly enamoured. Nick Cave weaves indie music with biblical storytelling of loss, love, grief, resentment, and joy. Add a hint of gospel-tinged backing vocals and it's quite the spiritual awakening. Listening for the first time was like discovering the solo sounds of Morrissey. I have a new Wild God to worship, yet the congregation remains vaguely similar. Upon hearing that the band announced a world tour (to coincide with the release of WILD GOD) I got myself a ticket to Manchester this coming November and waited with ague for the album to be released. 

It's been a few weeks since release day and I’ve managed to come out of that ‘new album’ obsession (I’m autistic, it’s a literal obsession) and I decided to write a review of it! Here it is, track-by-track:

1. Song of the Lake - A characteristic intro synonymous with the bad seeds sound. There are no surprises here but with the gospel singing, and Cave’s ‘never mind’ lament - this is everything you’d expect it to be. This song reminds me of something from ‘Push The Sky Away’ which I discovered recently.

2. Wild God - the title track borrows from ‘Jubilee Street’ and tells a story of a ‘Wild God searching for a girl who died in 1993’ (or 2013?) the piano, gospel singing, and pounding drums are a driving force.  

3. Frogs - A slower song, released on Spotify first, as an album taster, and is my favourite from this latest Bad Seeds offering. The ‘Sunday Rain’ refrain and choral crescendo, juxtaposed with Nick Cave’s always powerful vocal, and frogmarching beat give this an extra-special feel   

4. Joy - Darkly beautiful. Some songs only need a two-word description and this is one of them. I’ll add ‘stunning’ as an extra superlative.  Some people would say this is a depressing sound, but I’d call it uplifting. ‘Have mercy on me, please’.

5. Final Rescue Attempt - an electro drone remains throughout the track (which reminds me of Jeff Wayne’s ‘War Of The Worlds’ for some bizarre reason) Imagery remains strong in Cave’s lyrics in this (now essential) Bad Seeds love song.  

6. Conversion - Atmospherically morose, Nick Cave preaches from his musical pulpit alongside gospel-esque backing vocals. If this song is ‘Touched by a Flame’ as the lyrics suggest, we’d all be on fire. It is a match-strike of a song that could have easily opened the album.

7. Cinnamon Horses - ‘ I told my friends that life was sweet’ but is it? Are the ‘Cinnamon Horses’ a metaphor for sadness, a lost love perhaps? Again, it's not an unexpected sound from Nick Cave, but those lyrics are beautiful, and that is something we should always expect from this master songwriter. 

8. Long Dark Night - Sometimes, you just need Nick Cave and a piano to deliver a song with moreish moroseness. 

9. Oh Wow, Oh Wow (How Wonderful She Is) - It's a Bad Seeds song with some electronica-type vocoder on it, which works. The audio sample is intriguing and worthy of further investigation. The lyrics don't need in-depth interpretation, and that's fine cos it’s Nick Cave - we don't need that when the music is as exquisite as this.

10.  As The Waters Cover The Sea -  is a slow and tender finish to the album. By this point, the ‘wild god’ has settled, but as a new convert to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I’ll be worshipping this ‘Wild God’ for quite some time. 

Nick Cave is on tour for 2024 / 2025 and you can find out more on his website. 

www.ryanoxleywriter.blogspot.com