The Frames - Burn the Maps
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Free Music Notes for Burn the Maps
Free Music Review: not bad
Hit: 4 Stars
its not bad, its brilliant if your a frames fan. but i suggest if your a newbie buy fitzcarraldo or dance the devil.much much better than burn the maps.and go see them live they are fantastic.Free Music Review: Rather quite good
Hit: 4 Stars
The Frames do have quite a history but one that still hasn't made it far out of Ireland. And despite their obvious live presence and devoted worldwide fan base probably never will. Their sideways storytelling style and their reeling rolling music are more about substance than the style required to sell millions of albums.
Burn the Maps is a cracker of a disc. It still possesses that sleepy style of 'From The Birds' but invests some of that pop and crackle from 'Dance the Devil'. Basically this album has a couple of clear singles in 'Happy' and 'Fake' which 'For the Birds' just didn't have. Whether this makes 'Burn...' a better album is entirely up to you.
To me this one is an easier listen. The first three tracks suck you in with their familiarity born from them being all round catchy tunes then we wander into atmospheric introspectiveness and passion that Frames fans have come to expect.
At times the quiet/loud progression in song after song can get a little tedious - change of tempo can sometimes be so much fun but when it's the same from and to tempo time after time.......hmmm. Cheap shot perhaps but you can't give them a perfect score can you?
In the end what keeps this disc moving along is Colm's violin. It's just so persuasive and at times very reminiscent of Warren Ellis from The Dirty Three and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. Combine that violin with Glenn Hansard's voice and lyrical expression then you have a slow burn winner.
I suspect The Frames are getting better and better as musicians and composers and I fully intend to stay with them till next time.
Free Music Review: No better band making music in Ireland right now
Hit: 5 Stars
The Frames have long been the best kept secret of Ireland, but all that is about to change with this record and the coming year. If you have a chance to see them live, DO NOT MISS THEM. They are a force to be reckoned with live and it is there that they truly shine in all their glory. There are precious few bands playing today that work as hard for their audience, and not many at all that respect and engage their audience so directly as The Frames. They simply love playing music and they love playing it for you.
Burn The Maps is a beautiful album and a wonderful counterpoint to that live experience. It is a terrific piece of work, as you'd expect from the lads, with wonderful highs and lows, broad sonic landscapes and quiet intimate tunes, lush arrangements, heartfelt lyrics and epic aspirations. Many of the tracks have a similar feel in the way they build towards climactic crescendos of sound and outpouring of emotion. For the first time on a Frames album it really feels like a cohesive band collaboration, rather than previous efforts. Compare it to previous albums where often Hansard's songs were most likely worked up into band numbers, which worked extremely well too, but was simply different to the current approach. For that reason, this album should be of interest to musicians and songwriters evrywhere.
Hansard continues to produce some of the most interesting and evocative lyrics around, and his singing seems to go from strength to strength. A really great front man. Colm Mac Con Iomaire's violin plays a central and significant role on this album, and deservedly so, as in many ways he defines the sound and energy of all that the band does. Joe Doyle's bass playing is spot on and his backing vocals are given a more prominent role on this record, and every song is the better for it. Rob Bochnik's contribution is also immeasurable. His ability to fill and add detail to The Frames songs makes him the unsung hero of the record in my book.
If you are a newcomer to The Frames, this may not be the best record with which to begin (perhaps "Setlist" for the live flavour and "For the Birds" for the stunning brilliance of their songs in a studio based environment) but it is a real grower of an album and deserves an extended stay in your CD player. There are songs for every occasion, and you'll not hear a more beautiful pop chorus this year than the opening track Happy.
This year is the year of The Frames and its about time. They earned their moment in the sun. I wish them every success and I'll continue to catch them live any time they play near me.
Kalle