Rating: NNNN
While I know they’ve been around for way longer and have a substantial body of celebrated work under their belts, the thing that keeps popping up as I’m trying to explain Dublin’s Frames is that if Chris Martin and Coldplay were actually talented, this is what they might sound like. Or maybe this is what they wish they sounded like. On their latest studio album, the Frames revel in their seemingly effortless talent for arranging desperately beautiful melodies surrounded by string arrangements and a near-perfect sense of structure and dramatic effect. Singer Glen Hansard moves from quiet introspection to earnest Jeremy Enigk-like wailing and back again, all the while reminding you just how rewarding a listen The Cost is.
