Once

1 more product image	By Original Soundtrack Columbia, 2007, Audio CD Customer Rating: 216 reviews   Recommend List Price: $13.98 Our Price: $9.99 (Price details) You Save: $3.99 (29%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Free Shipping on orders over $25.

Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic-born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard. (The film's director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group.) The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the songs are smoothly integrated in the film. The overall acoustic mood won't surprise fans of the Frames — some tracks ("Say It to Me," "When Your Mind's Made Up") have even popped up on the band's albums, though the arrangements are more pared-down here, befitting the scruffy, street-musician setting. Being the lesser-known entity, Irglová feels like a revelation; she sounds a bit like a folkie Björk on "If You Want Me," and her song "The Hill" is downright heartbreaking. Irglová and Hansard had already made the 2006 album The Swell Seasontogether, so their collaboration here feels really organic — they sound particularly good together on the title track, for instance. Now that's the kind of magic you want from musicals. — Elisabeth Vincentelli

1. Falling Slowly
2. If You Want Me
3. Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy
4. When Your Minds Made Up
5. Lies
6. Gold
7. The Hill
8. Fallen from the Sky
9. Leave
10. Trying to Pull Myself Away
11. All the Way Down
12. Once
13. Say It to Me Now

Title: Once
Sales Rank: 50 in Music
Artist: Original Soundtrack
Label: Columbia, 2007-05-22, Audio CD, 1 Disc
Format: Soundtrack
Package Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches, 0.15 pounds

• The Swell Season
• Once
• The Cost
• Fitzcarraldo
• Set List