ALBUM REVIEW – SWELL SEASON – ”FORWARD“
- Desh Kapur
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
SWELL SEASON
FORWARD.
Out Now
WORDS HARRY K
Sixteen years after their last album together, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová return as The Swell Season with Forward, a poignant, beautifully understated collection of eight new songs that reaffirms what made their chemistry so rare and affecting in the first place—while also pushing their creative partnership somewhere quietly, deeply new.
Considering the history behind this reunion, it would’ve been easy to expect something nostalgic or even overly sentimental. After all, Strict Joy (2009) followed their Oscar-winning rise via Once, and their relationship—both musical and romantic—had become something of indie folklore. But Forward is a fitting, even quietly defiant title for their comeback. It signals not just a reunion, but a reinvention: not a return to a past era, but a step into something else entirely, forged by the lives they've led apart.
Recorded in Irglová’s Icelandic home studio with their families and longtime collaborators in tow, the album carries an intimacy and warmth that feels lived-in. It’s less a polished comeback and more like an open-window conversation between two people who know each other too well to pretend. “Factory Street Bells,” the opener, immediately sets the tone: Hansard's gravelly voice sings tenderly about fatherhood, while Irglová’s delicate piano feels like a quiet echo of shared memory. It's understated and sincere, drawing the listener into a space of reflection and reconnection.
Each track on Forward showcases the pair's signature emotional immediacy, but with a refined maturity. “Great Weight” adds a welcome burst of rhythmic levity—its jazzy optimism proof that the years have brought not just wisdom, but lightness. “People We Used to Be” is perhaps the album’s thematic core, a gentle reckoning with change and distance, offering a mirror to both the duo's own past and the listener’s.
Then there’s the gorgeously ironic “Stuck in Reverse,” a Hansard-penned ballad that Irglová completes with a verse that shifts the narrative entirely. That interplay—her intuitive lyrical additions, his raw musical honesty—exemplifies how the duo continues to challenge and elevate each other. Where Hansard brings grit and vulnerability, Irglová counterbalances with grace and clarity, and it’s in these contrasts that Forward finds its deepest resonance.
Musically, the album blends their familiar folk textures with moments of cinematic swell. Strings, courtesy of original collaborators Marja Gaynor and Bertrand Galen, are used sparingly but to great effect. New drummer Piero Perelli adds light, human grooves, while Joseph Doyle (bass) grounds the arrangements without ever overwhelming them. This ensemble plays with restraint, allowing the songs’ emotional arcs to breathe.
Lyrically, Forward is about growth—sometimes painful, often quiet, always honest. But it’s also about the alchemy of collaboration. “We serve as a mirror to each other,” Irglová says, and the music reflects that dynamic: trust, tension, spark. This is not a reunion for nostalgia’s sake, but a creative reawakening. Their time apart—Hansard in Helsinki, Irglová raising a family in Reykjavik—has clearly enriched their perspectives. The result is a collection of songs that are neither backward-looking nor overly polished. They are lived-in, intentional, and beautifully real.
Forward doesn’t try to recapture the magic of Once, nor does it shy away from the passage of time. Instead, it embraces it. It offers a simple but powerful message, perhaps best captured in its closing sentiments: never give up, keep going—forward.
Rating: 9/10
A quietly stunning return that honors the past without dwelling in it. Hansard and Irglová remain masters of emotional sincerity, and with Forward, The Swell Season proves they’re not done evolving—together.
TRACK LISTING
1/ Factory Street Bells
2/ People We Used To Be
3/ Stuck In Reverse
4/ I Leave Everything To You
5/ A Little Sugar
6/ Pretty Stories
7/ Great Weight
8/ Hundred Words
FOLLOW SWELL SEASON