THE FRAMES
The Cost
Anti
· The latest album by The Frames was recorded live off the floor in only 10 days.
In their Irish homeland The Frames are a national chart-topper with five albums to their credit. On this side of the Atlantic, though, they are a curiosity whose exposure is limited to one brilliant full-length and a live album. For their latest album, The Cost, they have toned down the indie-rock bent that has given their recordings a ragged edge in favour of laidback balladry. In fact, for much of the album they sound like they are trying to emulate another Irish musical export – U2. With a violin player in their ranks full-time, The Frames have always had a dose of saccharine that comes with string arrangement, but The Cost has that in spades. When it works it’s stunning. With a five-minute crescendo, "People Get Ready" is The Frames’s gorgeous answer to U2’s "All I Want is You," but the rest of the time the album is too timid or sappy to hold up to the band’s powerful tradition.
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