You can trust Louder
You can’t always get a point across with overblown posturing, or by bellowing bug-eyed through a mic. Anyone who’s seen the blockbusting Commitments- and Once-star Glen Hansard live knows this, as the modern-day Irish troubadour is wont to abandon amplification entirely and turn up the emotion acoustically or a cappella, even in venues such as The Barbican.
Didn’t He Ramble is teeming with quietly stirring stuff ripe for this sort of interpretation and a leap on from 2012’s introverted break-up memoir Rhythm And Repose.
In line with inspirations Van Morrison and The Band, Hansard’s take on folk, blues and soul music is honest and poetic, testified in a characteristic whisper-to-a-roar confessional wail. But it’s the string and brass arrangements that makes Ramble so sublime, particularly the Stones-esque raw gospel balladry of Her Mercy, My Little Ruin and the almost (early) Chicago-like Just To Be The One.
“One would hope that through all of this that you find your voice,” Hansard says of his emotional, spiritual and musical journey to complete this record. He’s succeeded. Ramble on, indeed.
Jo is a journalist, podcaster, event host and music industry lecturer who joined Kerrang! in 1999 and then the dark side – Prog – a decade later as Deputy Editor. Jo's had tea with Robert Fripp, touched Ian Anderson's favourite flute (!) and asked Suzi Quatro what one wears under a leather catsuit. Jo is now Associate Editor of Prog, and a regular contributor to Classic Rock. She continues to spread the experimental and psychedelic music-based word amid unsuspecting students at BIMM Institute London and can be occasionally heard polluting the BBC Radio airwaves as a pop and rock pundit. Steven Wilson still owes her £3, which he borrowed to pay for parking before a King Crimson show in Aylesbury.