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BBC ATL - Live In Lisburn, 12.08.2003 He’s shaking his hips and he’s body-poppin’ to the urban sound. In a moment, he’s do a few mincing dance steps and he’ll moan about Britney in a mithering, falsetto voice. Tonight, Matthew, Glen Hansard will be Justin Timberlake, singing ‘Cry Me A River’. And we will all laugh and shout encouragement, to see The Frames at play. Congrats to the people that have brought the Frames to a venue that’s not really associated with rock and roll. And actually, it works very well, certainly to the satisfaction of Glen and his fans. This band have often experienced messy shows in the north, but tonight it’s all working perfectly, hence the Timberlake tribute, mid-way through ‘Star Star’. We were looking for indications of the new Frames music, to try and measure where they’re going with the new album. And while we heard many of the trusted faves, a selection of tracks show the new opportunities out there. Glen has been playing ‘People Get Ready’ during the last couple of solo tours, so it’s not unfamiliar. It’s the first song of the night, and it does the job decently, calling all the sympathetic souls together. Later, there will be a tune in waltz time with folksy string effects, suggesting that Glen hasn’t grown tired of his Will Oldham records. And there’s a lesser known song, possible called ‘Under Glass’ that catches the themes of dislocation, confusion and torment rather nicely. ‘Keepsake’ is another boss creation as Colm plays eerie lines on his fiddle, like some eastern European lament. It’s also reminiscent of the Dirty Three and Glen builds on that melancholy drift, picking through the bones of another doomed relationship. They finish with ‘Fitzcarraldo’ as Glen reminds us of the film of the same name and how pure determination can achieve heroic things. More cheers, a buoyant chorus and ultimately, a rave show in a new city. Stuart Bailie The Frames, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn, 12.8.03
PopMatters.com - "Set List"
US release date: 24 February 2004 Unless you're Peter fucking Frampton, you're unlikely to win many new fans with a live album. Even the dinosaur rocker himself had already built a steady worldwide fan base as a session player, member of Humble Pie and solo artist (his later turn as Billy Shears in the movie adaptation of Sgt. Pepper's notwithstanding). Yet most Americans are discovering Irish phenoms the Frames through their current live release, Set List. The band's Anti debut captures an energetic still image of a band equal parts U2 four-chord bombast (opener "Revelate") and quirky Barenaked Ladies pop ("Lay Me Down") shot through a filter of feedback-laden indie rock (the band's studio recordings have been produced by Steve Albini, among others). Eight-minute "Fitzcarraldo" even evokes Before These Crowded Streets-era Dave Matthews Band, complete with throaty emotion in the louder parts and proggy fiddle solo. In short, why aren't these rootsy Irish heroes the next big thing state-side? Judging by the fervent crowd sing-alongs masterfully mixed in this recording, the Frames even put on a kickass live show. One clue may be the songwriting. Though new track "The Blood" oozes with melancholy and "Star Star" offers the disc's best effort at tasty pop singledom, the songs rarely leap out on their own merit. This is pretty standard turn-of-the-century modern rock, leavened with indie-rock noise as a nod to the hipsters. The passion underpinning each performance is sure to cinch this disc for longtime fans, as will the clever covers interpolated within the Frames' own songs -- "Pure Imagination" from the Willy Wonka soundtrack? Why didn't I think of that? These covers also reveal the band's shortcomings; the chords of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" may be no more unique than the Frames' compositions, but lead singer Glen Hansard stumbles through Marley's sacramental lyrics, even botching a key poetic device by singing the wrong words. (Hansard says "Your Face" was written about listening to Marley's music, but clearly he needs to spend more time with his record collection -- or any online lyrics database). Such cavils aside, Set List depicts a band as good as anything else on "alternative" radio bringing its fans into audible ecstasy, if the "ooh" backing vocals on "The Blood" are any measure of audience joy. College students looking to pick up the kid in the dorm who always discovers the next MTV darling three months in advance might find Set List a suitably innocuous makeout record. The band's considerable fire in concert is anything but unforgettable when set to disc, but their blend of indie and multi-platinum influences should propel any subsequent studio effort into the buzz bin alongside stronger, similarly accessible acts like Massachusetts indie-popsters Guster or fellow Irishman Damien Rice. — 4 June 2004
Anti - "Set List Set List contains optimum performances of songs culled from The Frames’ four album repertoire, honed and refined over 14 years of intense, elating and near-legendary live shows. The sense of profound connection forged between the band and its audience has often been compared to the evangelical feeling at shows by Springsteen and U2 – albeit with more skewed sensibilities – and it’s there for the hearing on Set List: in the indoor fireworks of ‘Revelate’ and ‘God Bless Mum’; in the audience’s full-throated contribution to the warped earthenware folk of ‘Lay Me Down’; in the rambling, poignant and funny monologue that prefaces the aching ‘When The Heart Just Stops’; in a version of the epic ‘Fitzcarraldo’ so incendiary one of the guitar amps went up in flames.
Pitchfork
Media - February 3 2004 The Frames The Frames might be superhotshit in Ireland, but their careful, blowsy blend of cock-rock swagger and trad-folk delicacy has long slipped past the ears of most Americans, despite loads of rousing recommendations from Brian Eno and million-star reviews from almost every Irish periodical ever. After nearly fourteen years of touring (and four full-length LPs), the band has opted to release a 13-track live album, Set List, as proof of their insane stamina and hyper-dedicated following: If nothing else, the record is a hard and fast testament to the goofy fervor The Frames are capable of inducing in eager European crowds. The tragic flaw of the live record is that it almost always offers an entirely compromised version of the genuine experience-- a watery, dull, one-dimensional representation of something that should ideally be transcendent. The Frames are stellar songsmiths, and Set List certainly proves that they're equally capable live performers, but by far the most interesting aspect of this record is the foot-stomping fervor of their perpetually singing-along crowd. Anyone nauseated by the prophetical leanings of Dashboard Confessional shows (check small clumps of skinny kids mouthing every lyric in earnest, whimpering along with their hands clenched into euphoric fists), or freaked out by the beer-soaked "Bruce!" bellows that send quivers through Giants Stadium whenever Springsteen plays, might be equally shocked by the enthusiasm of The Frames' adoring fans, who seem to be perpetually trembling with excitement. Somehow, The Frames have managed to capture the sweaty, breathless communion of the live show in some oddly convincing ways. If you can get past gaping over the hollers of the audience, Set List just might be compelling enough to encourage new listeners to check out The Frames' proper discography. Recorded over four nights at Vicar Street in Dublin, Set List runs through the band's standards (see opener "Revelate" and the scream-along fest of "Star Star") and offers a single new track (seriously, how are these kids still singing along?), the quietly confessional, heavily falsettoed "The Blood". Frontman Glen Hansard is always playful, leading his bandmates into bits of Marley's "Redemption Song" and Cash's "Ring of Fire", and offering plenty of charming between-song banter. The Frames have long imbued their playing with a certain elasticity, each song bending and shifting like a pulled rubberband, and it gets easier and easier to understand how fans can become so enraptured by the tug: Colm Mac Con Iomaire's fiddle-playing is breathless, and Joseph Doyle's backing vocals are expert, lifting Hansard's vocals and guitars onto a perfect pedestal. Alternately earnest and teasing, tracks like "Stars Are Underground" and "Santa Maria" prove that The Frames are actually far more than the sum of their recorded parts. Set List is not their first live record (see 2002's flaccid Breadcrumb Trail), but it is easily their most convincing plea for your ticket-buying attention. Amanda Petrusich
MusicMatch.com - Set List ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Pitchforkmedia - November 20 2003
The Frames
Irish folk-rockers The Frames have been fractured and reassembled a ridiculous number of times since their original formation in 1990, and their latest release, The Roads Outgrown, features selected non-pieces and leftovers from their last three years as a performing unit: a Will Oldham cover ("Tomorrow's Too Long"), a Mic Christopher song ("Listen Girl"), an outtake from their 2000 Albini sessions ("Rise"), a handful of reworked tracks from their last full-length (2001's For the Birds) and a fiery, ten-minute live version of a cut from their second record ("Fitzcarraldo"). It's classic outtakes-collage, cobbled together from disparate sessions/periods/albums, but, surprisingly, The Roads Outgrown plays more like a cohesive project, its seemingly unrelated cuts assembled with an artful sense of unity. The Roads Outgrown also functions as an oddly convincing introduction to the band, showing how their different methods/lineups always reach the same earthy conclusion: earnest, vaguely melancholic folk songs punctuated by quivering violins and frontman Glen Hansard's shaky country croon. Excellent opener "Lay Me Down" (reworked and re-recorded at "Joan's house" before being selected for inclusion here) layers a light acoustic guitar melody over heavy bass-drum thumping, easing out in a haze of violin pulls, Hansard's voice flitting from whisper to coo. "Headlong" follows, sounding a bit like a Radiohead circa-The Bends B-side, as Hansard howls and strums with welcome intensity. The Oldham cover, meanwhile, is plumped up with whining fiddles and half-whispered vocals, The Frames' delicate instrumentation breathing new warmth into Will's obtuse poetics. The Frames' understanding of their own discography seems to have informed the fluidity of this collection, and its song-to-song coherence is both impressive and perplexing; while boldly varied in tempo, volume, and style, The Roads Outgrown is always concerned with its implicit mission-- namely, offering sincere, cerebral folk-pop crafted with the quiet confidence of a thirteen-year career. Amanda Petrusich, November 20th, 2003
Sydney Morning Herald - November 18 2003
"What rock's all about" An evening with the Frames is not so much a music concert as a non-stop lovefest. The Metro, long sold out, was packed with acolytes and worshippers. So it was that for 90 minutes Ireland's favourite live act played all the songs their audience have come to know and love - Star Star, Lay Me Down, What Happens When the Heart Just Stops, Pavement Tune, Fitzcarraldo, et al - and the audience sang back at the tops of their collective voices. In theory such adulation can create problems. If you know you are confronted with a room awash with unconditional love there must be a temptation to be a little self-indulgent and smug. Glen Hansard, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, never allows this to happen. He is a master entertainer in a low-key way who relies on the quality of his songs and the goodwill of his audience to create an environment where bonhomie and sly musical incongruity seem natural. The presence of an electric fiddle in the middle of a hard-edged post-punk song like Revelate, and the use of the oh-so-dreamy Pure Imagination, from the Willy Wonka movie, are typical. Hansard has also created a body of work which is characterised by a superb use of light and shade, his lead vocals moving from a whisper to a shout and the music shifting effortlessly from sweet melodies to grinding guitar riffs while always, hovering in the background, are the haunting, floating fiddle lines of Colm Mac Con Iomaire. The Frames' success is based on one of the oldest, and most surefire, formulas in rock: the right of an audience to own the band's songs, and the astute, if unconscious, device of the band dressing down so that they look like their audience. There are no stars here, only a shared enjoyment of great music. This equality turns preening rock stardom on its head and makes the notions of "marketing" and "hype" seem absurd and unnecessary. At one point Hansard gently, and with great good humour, reminded the audience that "This is my song", but they rejected that immediately. It was their song. He was merely the conduit. They had a right to sing it. And they weren't going to be satisfied with singing just the verses. Hansard's particular genius is that he knows how to write songs which are ideal vehicles for audience participation. These are not songs where there is an impulse to sing along with the dopey chorus like, say, Blowin' in the Wind. These are songs with spaces for the audience to rise above the main singer. They are structured in such a way that the audience wants to start singing from the opening bars. The result is a magical live experience and a reminder that, for all the expense and excess which characterise supergroups, a special, heartfelt relationship between a band and its adoring audience is what great live rock concert is really all about. Bruce Elder
Sydney Morning Herald - November 15 2003
"The edge on their compatriots" Imagine a situation where your low-key, relatively unknown band is playing a gig in London and there, right in the front row, is Brian Eno, founding member of Roxy Music, acclaimed electronic installation artist, producer of most of U2's legendary albums and the father of modern ambient music - and he's weeping. Glen Hansard, the leader, singer, songwriter and guitarist with Irish group the Frames, tells this story with more than a hint of embarrassment. It must be pretty hard trying to sing and perform while someone in the front row is blubbering away. "To be standing on stage and have Brian Eno standing right in front of you looking at the band with tears in his eyes was the weirdest experience. Afterwards he told me, 'I was crying in Star Star.' For me, that was a huge validation." Eno would later say that the Frames concert was the best live performance he had seen in five years. It was a big call but it was also a flawless judgement if the group's live album, Set List, is any indication of the power of their onstage presence. Set List is, along with James Brown Live at the Apollo, Bob Marley and the Wailers Live! and a few other rarities, one of those albums in which the magic of live performance is captured perfectly. At one point Hansard, listening to the audience singing along to the beautiful Lay Me Down, spontaneously lets out a "Wow!" as though he, too, is overwhelmed. As Hansard explains: "Our gigs are based on mutual trust. If everyone in the band is working together and the audience is good then there's a third element invited into the gig and that's magic and spontaneity." Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Frames is that, in an era when popular music has become a manufactured product, this group has returned to all the reasons that make rock music so special and so important. Their history is long and complex. Hansard started playing guitar in pub bands when he was 13. In the early '90s he had two lucky breaks when he was invited to play the guitarist, Outspan Foster, in Alan Parker's film of Roddy Doyle's novel The Commitments and, around the same time, his newly formed band the Frames were signed by Chris Blackwell to Island Records. These breaks proved less than life-changing. Blackwell signed the band the day he sold Island Records and touring, with posters loudly declaring "featuring Glen Hansard from The Commitments", built false audience expectations and didn't allow the band to develop. Back in Dublin busking, Hansard was persuaded that true independence was a sensible career option. "We were all buskers," Hansard says. "Every Saturday we'd have an audience who would gather and we'd play for a few hours and then we'd go and have a drink. That audience stayed with us. "We were advised, after we had been dropped by Island, that we didn't need a record company to make a record. The plan was to play to our audience and to raise the money for recording from that audience. We were advised to tell our audience what we needed the money for: we told them we were playing seven nights in this tiny pub because we need to make a record and we need this much money to do it. The place was packed every night." The result is that, without major record company support, they have reached a point where they are bigger than U2, certainly as a live band, in Ireland. Although at one time the Frames and U2 shared a record company, Hansard has no great love for Ireland's most successful band. "I don't think U2 have ever really communicated with other Irish bands. They never took an Irish band on the road. They never supported Irish bands in the press. I respect them and I like them as a band but I don't feel any personal allegiance. U2 are like the Catholic Church in Ireland. They're so f---ing big that we both fear them and respect them. You daren't say anything wrong about them or you'll go straight to hell." It was therefore a powerful comment on the emerging status of the Frames that last year's readers' poll in the Irish music magazine Hot Press named the Frames the country's best live act. Hansard notes that, "It was the people's poll and the good thing was that Bono, in an awards ceremony, said, 'I want to say tonight that we know who the Frames are and we respect them.' That was the first time he had ever mentioned our name." If they keep writing, recording and performing as well as they did when they made Set List, then Bono will be having lots more to say about the Frames. The Frames play The Metro on Saturday, 9287 2000.
IRIS magazine - September 22 2003 The Frames "Fake"
“Fake” as a song has been part of The Frames’ live set for months now, with bootlegs making their rounds to fans around the globe. While the latest recording of the song takes an almost complete left turn from the stripped-down version most often heard, it is the right turn in every respect. Fans may miss the solo sound of frontman Glen Hansard’s voice, but the double-layer vocals are refreshing, almost Beatles-esque. Couple that with the orchestral string arrangement and crunchy, grunge-inspired chorus, and you’re left with a radio-friendly song that sounds better with each listen. The second track, ‘Precariously Aiming,’ is a departure from the normal Frames sound, and it works brilliantly. This song has an almost punk feel to it and just may be one of the best tunes The Frames have written to date. ‘Trying,’ the final track, is, to put it simply, beautiful. It begins like any other slow Frames song, but includes an audible bass line, the intricate picking of an acoustic guitar, and a drowned-out, but still-violent electric guitar, giving the song a strangely fluid, soothing feel. It is a fitting end to the three-song single. While the cover art alone justifies the €4.99, it is the arrangement and production of the songs that makes this single stand out from other Frames efforts, “I’m gonna find myself a way into your mind…” Angela Wade
Hot Press - "Fake" - September 8 2003
Hot Press - "The Roads Outgrown"
Opening with Lay Me Down the album includes all the tracks on the Headlong EP (including the wonderful covers of Will Oldham's 'New Partner' and Mic Christopher's 'Listen Girl') and the live version of 'Fitzcarraldo' from the Breadcrumb Trail. The previously unreleased 'Sickbeds' also gets an outing. Thematic parallels could be drawn here with the Egon Schiele-inspired 'Santa Maria'. The track is a melting pot of styles from its spoken word intro to its echoey distorted guitars, woven together in a rich sonic tapestry in classic Framesian style. From the Lay Me Down EP, the country-tingled melodic canter of 'Tomorrow's Too Long' features with its co-flipside 'Rise', which builds layer upon layer of raw acoustica and soul-bearing lyric into an intense emotional climax. Recorded in various flats, houses and studios everywhere from the US and France to the Czech Republic via Ventry this eclectic mix is an aural treat not to be missed. Róisín Dwyer, 9/10
Musicmatch.com - "The Roads Outgrown"
Jason Nickey, All Music Guide
Washington Post - October 16 2003 Glen Hansard barely spoke. Singer, guitarist and leader of the Frames, Hansard is normally an engrossingly loquacious frontman, generating offbeat tales, observations and general babble between (and occasionally during) songs. But apart from emphatically shutting up a heckler, Hansard trained his energies on music at the Black Cat on Tuesday night, leading his band through a magnificent 50-minute set. The Frames enjoy widespread popularity in their native Ireland -- their latest single sits alongside those by Dido, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera in that country's current Top 10 -- but make the U.S. rounds mostly as opening act for midlevel indie bands. Tuesday they preceded the desert-soundtrackedelica of Calexico and veered from sharp to lush and loud to soft with tight instrumental command. Hansard's melodies are the key to the whole Frames equation, and he sang them with his trademark blend of subway busker and Van Morrison-ese, even slipping some of the latter's "Caravan" into his own "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops." Fiddler Colm Mac Con lomaire remained the quintet's instrumental fulcrum, taking solos and tempering the band's classic rock-derived tones, which, on songs like "Santa Maria" and "Lay Me Down," began whisper-quiet and built to distorted, string-scrubbing climaxes. Frames fans have been patiently awaiting a long-promised new album, but Tuesday's show offered only a couple of new numbers, played in the wake of the aforementioned new single "Fake." Perhaps the new record, when it is released, will be the band's American breakthrough, but until then, the small gathering of fans who shouted the band back for a rare opening-act encore will savor each appearance by these underappreciated musicians. Patrick Foster
mcd.ie - October 2003 In March 2001 the Irish band The Frames released their 4th album "For The Birds". It debuted in the Irish album charts at no. 6 and reached gold status there within 2 weeks. Throughout this past year it has picked up a slew of stunning reviews from both their home country and from across the Atlantic in America. Back in Ireland after an amazing American tour and before hitting the road again in Europe, The Frames appeared live at the annual Hot Press televised awards ceremony from Belfast on the 26th April. Following their success last year in The Hot Press Magazine, where they picked up the coveted critics choice best album for 2001, at this years ceremony they were up for best album, best band, best single (lay me down) and best musician (Glen Hansard). They also appeared on the Kelly show playing 'Headlong' their new single which came out on April 26th. Also, in April there was a Frames mini-documentry on Ceol I gCuideachta which aired on BBC2NI. The Frames headlined their own gig at Dublin Castle on May 6th as part of the Heineken Green Energy Festival coinciding with an extensive Today FM interview which saw the band playing acoustically and talking about the various events that had happened as well as forthcoming plans. During the summer, The Frames once again featured in the year’s Witnness Festival – this time with a slot on the main stage. The Frames were one of the bands chosen for a simultaneous live broadcast by 2FM. As with the recording of the previous year’s festival, the recording of The Frames set was offered by 2FM to EBU stations right around Europe. To date these Frames recordings have been broadcast by 19 European stations – a sure sign of the band’s international potential! In between touring in America The Frames made time to go into Steve Albini’s studio again to lay down some new versions of "Headlong", "God Bless Mom" and Will Oldhams "New Partner". Along with a Mic Christopher song, 'Listen Girl', these four tracks were released as a single in mid May. Since then the band have been touring solidly in Europe and the USA. They have just finished their first tour of Australia which has been one of the most exciting foreign tours they have ever done, with a reaction that exceeded all expectations! The Frames spent most of November and some of December on an extensive tour of Ireland finishing off the year with a special New Year’s Eve show in the Cork Opera House accompanied by very special guests. The prestigious Hot Press Readers Poll 2003 saw The Frames feature heavily in recognition of the quality of work they have done in Ireland and the devotion of their fans: NO 1 BEST GROUP; NO 1 BEST LIVE ACT; NO 2 SONGWRITER (GLEN); NO 4 BEST MALE (GLEN); NO 2 BEST MUSICIAN (COLM); NO 4 BEST POLLING ACT The Frames were nominated in the following categories at the 2003 Meteor Ireland Music Awards: Best Irish Group; Best Irish Male Singer (Glen Hansard) In March the band recruited a new guitarist, Rob Bochnik, via Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago (Rob helped build the studio and had worked there for 8 years as well as playing with a host of American bands). At the same time they parted company with their drummer Dave Hingerty. They are currently using a variety of friends to fill in until they find a permanent replacement. March 2003 also saw the band back in the U.S. for a mini-tour of the country (Boston, Chicago and New York) as well as participating in the South By South West Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. April saw them nipping back to Chicago to record tracks in preparation for a brand new studio album. Meanwhile Glen Hansard took a few days off to immerse himself in the production of a music TV series, "Other Voices: Songs From A Room", for RTE which he presented and which features a whole host of Irish talent performing live in the beautiful and intimate surroundings of a church in Dingle, Co Kerry. The Frames released the live album, Set List, through their Plateau label on 16 May 2003. It went straight into the Irish Album Charts at No 1 (the first Irish album of the year to hit the top spot). The band flew straight over to the U.S.and played 3 sell-out shows in New York (to 1,000 people at the Bowery Ballroom), Chicago and Los Angeles. Summer 2003 in Ireland saw the band play stupendous sets at the 2 main Irish festivals of the year (Witnness and Lisdoonvarna) to tens of thousands of slavering fans. At the beginning of September 2003 a brand new single, "Fake", was released offering an advance taster of the band’s next studio. It shot straight into the Irish charts at No 4. In typical celebratory mood, the band flew straight to the U.S. to embark on their longest tour to date which will be followed by an Australian tour before The Frames return for a pre-Christmas tour of Ireland throughout December. What the critics have said...... "Gorgeous, feedback-soaked swoon songs....a weirdly warm place to be" 7/10 Andy Greenwald, Spin Magazine "The Frames with their latest record, have made a recording that rock's new breed of songwriter bands must attempt to measure up against..." Justin Hopper, Pittsburgh City Paper "For The Birds is a literate, delicate and passionate record that says with the sort of majestic weariness embedded in the Dirty Three's best work..." Rolling Stone Magazine "Sounding like a head on collision between Smog, dEUS and the Pixies (and believe me that doesn't do them justice), live they are simply fucking astounding. Do yourself a big favour, seek them out and buy the record - you won't be disappointed." Andy Basire, Making Music UK "A beautiful, beautiful record that will just enrich your heart and make you glad you took the time to listen" BBC online UK "Absolutely and completely outstanding." Dave Roberts, The event guide, Dublin Ireland "Dublins finest spread their magic in Austin." Music Week reporting from SXSW Festival, Texas "The gig of the festival…..if you’re bored of music, then go and see The Frames. They’ll work wonders". BBC Radio reporting from the Witnness Festival
Iris Magazine - "Other Voices" June 2003
Iris Magazine - "Set List" June 2003
Sydney Morning Herald - "Set List" - July 2003
Stop the presses: a five star review. Can the darlings of Ireland's music scene really be this good? By Bruce Elder. You've got to be special to knock U2 off their perch. Enter the Frames, who topped both the best group and best live act categories in this year's readers' poll in Hot Press, Ireland's premier music paper. Brian Eno also described their 2001 London concert as the best he had seen in five years. This glorious live recording shows exactly why the Frames are the darlings of Ireland's music scene. It captures the excitement, passion, enthusiasm and love which can make concerts so special and memorable. Who would have ever thought that Glen Hansard, the red-headed guitarist in The Commitments, would give his career such shape and promise? It has taken the Frames a decade to get to this point. Since they formed back in the early 1990s, they have recorded six albums and enjoyed some chart success in Ireland. Yet it is with Set List, a sublime distillation of the very best of their work to date, that they lay claim to being extraordinary. Their strange mix of post-punk power pop, Pearl Jam, Irish folk (why else have a fiddle in a band?) and, for want of a better term, the ambience of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake, is original and captivating. They understand the importance of light and shade and the complex dynamics of live performance, moving from a whisper to a shout, a sweet melody to a grinding guitar riff, a floating fiddle line to, of all things, a few lines of Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and a chorus from Bob Marley's Redemption Song. There are moments of transcendental magic on this album, when the warmth between the audience and the musicians spills over into shared ecstasy. At one point in the middle of the gorgeous Lay Me Down, as the audience is singing along, one of the members of the band, hearing the perfect symbiosis between the fans and Glen Hansard, lets out a spontaneous "wow" at the emotion of the moment. Local audiences can go wow when the band tours in November.
IN THE PICTURE
shakenstir.co.uk - "Set List" - May 2003
There are live albums and there are LIVE albums. This is a LIVE album and one of the finest I've ever heard. In fact the news came through today that SET LIST has shot up to the number one position in the Irish album chart. Anybody who has had the privilege of seeing the Frames live will understand why. No other Indie band can match the dynamism, passion and raw emotion of a Frames show. What's so great about this album is that it's a fine recording of one show in Dublin, and so you get the intro crowd applause, you get the typical Glen Hansard improvisations, you get the very best of the band's songs, and you even hear the crowd singing along. It's what LIVE is all about and the reason it's a chart smash is because Frames shows are rammed to the rafters, and thousands of fans can at last go home with a record of what it's like to be there. And it's like nothing on earth! Opener, the classic Revelate, gets the album off to a thunderous start and provides an opportunity for the crowd to 'warm the vocal chords'. At one point during the song's passage, Hansard stops singing and you hear the crowd taking over. Then straight into Star Star, another live favourite, with its fairytale ambience and gorgeous vocal harmonies. One of my favourite Frames songs, Lay Me Down, starts and midway Hansard hands over to the audience for a spellbinding moment. Then a comic interlude when Hansard lowers his voice to imitate Johnny Cash in a shortened rendition of Ring Of Fire. Major favourite, God Bless Mom, with its silly vocal harmonies and guitar thrashes is up next. It seems to go on forever with little comments from Hansard and, of course, massive crowd 'assistence'. You just have to hear this rendition to believe it. One word - AMAZING! At this point, I've closed my eyes and I'm fuckin' there screaming with the crowd, and then wandering what's coming next. Hansard then tells the audience about the next song in his strong Irish lilt, embellished with funny stories. The audience laugh endlessly - Hansard has a wonderful sense of humour. Then the utterly beautiful, moving What Happens When The Heart Stops from the last studio album. A really great song is next and the crowd are beside themselves and at one point sing louder than the band. The song as performed here has a strong country vibe provided by some spectacular instrumentals. It's Rent Day Blues with it's crazy harmonies and soaring guitar chords. But the crowning glory is the fiddling by Mac Con lomaire that signals the final flailing dash for the line. Wonderful! Pavement Tune is next up and the band are at full stretch with Hansard literally screaming the lyrics accompanied by a crowd that just cannot contain itself. Shit, I wish I was at this concert! The instrumentals then quieten while Hansard talks his way to the end of the song, but not before the guitars have one final thrash just to let you know they're still around. The quiet and emotional tones of The Stars Are Underground offer time for calm and you can visualise the audience swaying gently and quietly in time with the song. Then there's almost total silence as a few percussive twinkles are heard, then it gets louder and louder and louder as the bass guitar finds its voice again and the crowd start to 'make some noise'. Then all the instruments join in and it's another dash for the tape, but this time it's not the sixty yard dash, it's the longer distance 1600 metres... Perfect Opening Line - the perfect introduction to the closing segment of the album - an example to any band on how to mix and match mood and pace, and blow your audience completely away! The song exemplifies the band's unmatched ability to mould superb melodies into intelligent, heartfelt songs and involve the listener. It's quite remarkable and in my experience almost unique. Your Face is another prime example which rolls quietly along supported by a simple guitar part, and then builds and builds to a wonderful crescendo; and takes you right along with it. Then Hansard turns the song on its head by completing it in the style of a love ballad. Stunning. Fitzcarraldo starts teasingly with gentle whisps of guitar and fiddle before you realise which song it is. And then it hits; that familiar melody, that pleading vocal, that mornful fiddle and then that crashing guitar. Can you imagine it? Of course you can't because you've never heard it or seen it. Well, with this record comes the opportunity to believe in rock music again, to witness first-hand how the finest music can be written and performed. You are unlikely to hear it on the radio or see it on your TV, or read about it in today's, slanted and narrow-minded UK music press. But it's here, and it's available, believe me. You may hear about from a friend. I'm your friend and I'm telling you to get hold of this record any way you can because you won't hear anything more exciting or inspiring or involving this year. But there's another interesting thing about SET LIST that I think could or perhaps should influence future studio recordings. And it's the more vibrant and exciting ambience which gives songs of diverse pace and mood, substantially more life. This wonderful album closes with a new song that I think will appear on the next Frames studio album. The Blood is performed by Hansard accompanied only by his tattered, battered, ancient guitar. It's one of the most moving and beautiful songs you will ever hear. And in this live ambience, its rawness cuts like a scalpel through the thickest hide. The crowd joins in with the chorus and it's the perfect closing line to one of the best albums I have ever heard. So while I start listening to it all over again for the umpteenth time, get on the Internet and click onto www.theframes.ie and get your credit card out. Enjoy the ride. Tony, 5/5
RTÉ.ie - "Set List" - May 2003
The Frames have always been renowned for their live shows. Anyone who has experienced the band in concert will have seen the intense connection between charismatic frontman Glen Hansard, a group of superb musicians, and an equally committed audience. Incredibly, 'Set List', recorded over four pre-Christmas 2002 shows in Dublin's Vicar Street, manages to capture the sound and feeling of live Frames. It's never been enough for the band to stand on stage and merely reproduce songs from their recorded output - they always go that extra mile, turning a mere concert into a total Experience. From the Willy Wonka moment of 'Pure Imagination' in 'Star Star' (Glen: "Close your eyes, count to three, make a wish..."), to the audience participation on new track 'The Blood', the diversion into Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song' on 'Perfect Opening Line' and the amp explosion in the middle of 'Fitzcarraldo', the energy never lets up, on either side of the stage. 'Set List' is a perfectly posed snapshot of a rare alchemy between audience and musicians. Not just for Frames fans. Caroline Hennessy
Eclectic Honey - "Set List" review
And so it is left to the seventy-three minutes of Setlist to try and replicate the experience of three hour sets, twenty minute stories about Van Morrison's birthday, Glen Hansard's stage-diving and countless other aspects that have helped The Frames to scribble out their subtitle of being one of the best live bands in the country and to replace the world 'Ireland' with 'The World'. It's an unenviable task, and one that's virtually impossible, but Setlist is the closest thing you'll ever get to being there. And what better way to open it all than with Revelate. It's the quintessential Frames song; the one you wait longingly for at every performance just so you can scream the words "Redeem Yourself" and bask in the glory of your 'number eight' t-shirt. It's a remnant from the struggles of life with a record label that doesn't support your music or your philosophy, and it's a song about things somehow turning themselves around, and as such it encapsulates the very essence of the Frames. Only Glen Hansard could pull off singing a line from Charlie and The Chocolate factory in the middle of Star Star, or casually lapse into The Ring of Fire at the end of lay me Down. In fact Hansard is the extreme opposite of the front-man who barely mumbles a forced 'thank-you' every three songs. His love for sharing stories is nowhere more apparent than the two-minute-plus preface to a beautifully delivered What Happens When the Heart Just Stops. Next up comes a version of God Bless Mom that never seems to end, switching between full-on rock-out and constrained stuttering with a delicate ease. If Revelate is their calling card, God Bless Mom is the highlight, and the performance on Setlist is the finest I've heard it. Pavement Tune is the Frames song that should have got to number one, if only things had worked out right; live, it's every bit as immediate. Santa Maria remains one of their finest songs committed to a CD, and the live vocal performance that Hansard summons is every bit its match. Setlist draws a line in the sand; twelve months ago the band played to 5000 fans in Dublin Castle and with their ever-growing popularity they are rapidly having to upsize their choice of venues. The day that the Frames outsold Justin Timberlake to steal the number one spot in the Irish charts with this album won't be forgotten. And neither will the legacy of Setlist.
Hot Press - "Set List" - May 8 2003
It is usually nigh-on impossible for live albums to capture the magic of actually being at a gig, and you would think that for The Frames, that goes doubly so. After all, The Frames live are a totally unique experience: every gig is a communion of sorts between band and audience, a tribal gathering that has been growing apace for the last three years or so. And yet, Set List, recorded over four nights in Vicar St. late last year, somehow manages to capture the fairy dust that makes Glen Hansard and co. such a riveting proposition on stage. They get crowd pleasers Revelate and Star Star out of the way early, the former a big, bawdy singalong, which has had a cathartic effect on a whole generation of Irish kids; the latter swoonsomely perfect, with the now obligatory trip to Willy Wonka"s Chocolate Factory in the middle-eight. Perversely, for a band who seem to give so much of themselves away to the audience with every performance, they end up all the greater for it. Perhaps The Frames" most valuable asset is their versatility, turning from righteous anger to pin-dropping pathos in a heartbeat (God Bless Mom, Pavement Tune, and a monumental Santa Maria.) The punters packed into Vicar St. play as large a part in the success of Set List as The Frames themselves. Unlike on many ultra-precious live recordings, here audience participation is not just recommended, it"s mandatory, and the good people of Ireland do themselves proud on Lay Me Down, the Kool & the gang bit on Rent Day Blues and especially on the only new track present, The Blood. There are a few surprises along the way, including excerpts of Johnny Cash"s Ring of Fire and Bob Marley"s Redemption song, as well as Glen"s hilarious and poignant introduction to What Happens When The Heart Just Stops. Set List is the sound of a band at the peak of their powers, from Colm"s stunning fiddle-work to Joe Doyle"s perfect backing vocals, with the boy Hansard as magical Master of Ceremonies, effortlessly guiding musicians and audience through their paces. Even people who dont"t love The Frames have to concede that they"re a fabulous live band - and so it"s no small recommendation to say that Set List succeeds in doing them justice. John Walshe 9/10 | ||
"Conceptually,
the collection of B-sides, outtakes, and arbitrary live tracks is an
underwhelming proposition. Usually packed fat with studio scraps, bits of
live shows, dubious band experiments, covers, and a mess of other shit that
doesn't quite fit anywhere else, outtakes discs are typically devised as a
boon for completists, assembled without the internal and temporal cohesion
of an album, and delivered to the public with minimal ceremony. Check the
outtakes disc as the musical equivalent of a Sunday morning yard sale: a row
of rickety folding tables overstocked with dusty, aging crap that was deemed
too valuable to toss blindly, but not considered functional enough to keep
around. Staple a construction paper sign to the nearest telephone pole, drag
a rusty plastic lawn chair out from the garage, and sell every last thing
for a dollar.
“And he’s left you in the rain again, and you were always on my mind.” -- The Frames, “Fake”
The format sounds deceivingly simple: Philip King (Hummingbird Productions) and Glen Hansard (The Frames) recruited twenty artists to perform at St. James’ Church in Dingle between the 14th and the 19th of December, 2002. The programme, aptly called ‘Other Voices: Songs from a Room,’ was “dedicated to celebrating new and innovative Irish voices.”
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