Funny the way things turn out. As leader of The Frames, Glen Hansard was always on the cusp of attention in the UK without making the final step towards replicating their Irish success. Then in 2007 he took a role in low budget Irish film Once, saw it become an award winning sleeper hit and formed The Swell Season with co-star Marketa Irglova. One of their co-writes for the film soundtrack, 'Falling Slowly', then went and won a Best Song Oscar in 2008. And on the back of that, they got to guest on The Simpsons. Produced by Hansard with Peter Katis (Interpol, The National, The Twilight Sad), Strict Joy is the pair's attempt in as much isolation as can reasonably be managed from the shadow of Once to reconcile both the aftermath of unexpected success and the breakup of their own relationship. This they carry off in a very trad Irish rock way, with spoonfuls of emotionally charged soul, rollicking folk rock and ruminative balladry. It's shown up best in the album's bookends, 'Low Rising' (a ringer for prime Van Morrison) and 'Back Broke' much like a heartaching Damien Rice bolstered by a rising wordless backing vocal army. And it's not just in typical Irishness where Hansard struggles to overcome his current influences, 'Feeling The Pull' two and a half minutes of Dylanesque acoustic-led charge right down to the unschooled harmonica in the outro.It's increasingly clear that Katis has a way of sensitively channelling an emotionally piqued vocalist. Hansard's usual alternation between close miked early hours bruised meditation and against-the-world determination rarely having hit home more forcefully, occasionally steering the path clear of pat Coldplayisms. Things get most interesting in the middle with 'High Horses', which halfway through breaks down into crystal harmonies before slowly building back up and threatening to take on Sufjan Stevens at his own game, and 'The Verb', which sounds naggingly familiar in its jittery, stop-start verse construction before subtle strings lift things into little moments of clarity. Irglova gets two lead vocals of her own, adding a dignity and almost level headedness to proceedings. If the backing to 'I Have Loved You Wrong' constantly threatens to drift apart it's her stately understatedness that anchors down her regret.While there's little to doubt that Hansard is capable of a slow burning bittersweet self-examination, too often Strict Joy seems content to wallow well within its crafted nature without sensing the immediacy, sounding unable or unwilling to break out of its self-imposed limitations rather than channelling the guilt, revenge or regret an album of lyrical broken open heartedness would suggest. Hansard and Irglova, given the right handling, make for a fascinating pairing but won't find something consistently solid to call their own until they work out how best to trust their primal writing instincts.

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