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Arguably the warmest event of this year’s Academy Awards telecast was the Best Song Oscar win by Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, also known as The Swell Season, for “Falling Slowly” from the Once soundtrack. The lo-fi movie, set in Dublin, inspired to Steven Spielberg to say, “A little movie called Once gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year”.

In a year of the schmaltzy songs from the Christmas movie Enchanted dominating the song field, it was quite amazing to see Once stand up get up, and receive notice. It was also redeeming as two other deserving musical pieces were not nominated this year: Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack to Into The Wild and Jonny Greenwood’s (of Radiohead) powerful score to There Will Be Blood.

But the success of Once was seen by many as due, based on the critics’ voices:

ROLLING STONE
“Thanks to [Hansard's] soulful wail, cuts like the excellent ‘Trying to Pull Myself Away’ and ‘Leave’ have a solid roots-rock magnetism.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“Hansard, a member of the Irish group The Frames, wrote the movie’s songs, and they are softly gorgeous odes to troubled hearts…”

THE NEW YORK TIMES
“[Hansard's] songs, full of ringing open chords and vague lyrics, are earnest and self-dramatizing.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES
“…the music is so rich and completely satisfying…”

AP ASSOCIATED PRESS
“[Hansard's] a powerhouse — his voice can be raw and clear, impassioned and imperfect. But it always feels like you’re listening to a true, heartfelt expression of who he is.”

DAILY NEWS
“That the songs — mostly written by Hansard, leader of the Irish rock band the Frames — are beautiful and brilliant certainly helps the film’s cause, as does the fact that the songs are general enough to stand on their own without being connected to the movie or its characters.”

THE VILLAGE VOICE
“Hansard…writes perfectly heartbreaking pop songs that are lovely all on their own, chiefly the track “Falling Slowly” heard twice in Once.”

Be sure to catch The Swell Season when they perform on Live From The Artists Den on Ovation TV February 28th.

Have you seen Once or does their win inspire you to?

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