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Forgive me for going all Glen Hansard on y'all the past few days...but there is one other project Hansard was involved in that I've been meaning to mention for awhile now, as it seem to have been largely overlooked in the marketplace, if for understandable reasons.

The record's called The Cake Sale and it was recorded by.... well, The Cake Sale, sorta, in that the inside credits on the record include a passage stating "The Cake Sale are:" and then listing all 24 musicians who took part in making the record. In reality, it's essentially various-artists collection, but there are a lot of interweaving ties: Hansard, for instance, contributed the song "All The Way Down" (which he and Marketa Irglova recorded for the Once soundtrack), but it's sung here by Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes. Hansard, in turn, sings lead on the track "Too Many People", which was written by Ollie Cole of the Irish band Turn. Similar twists exist throughout, with songs and/or vocal contributions from the likes of Josh Ritter, Damien Rice, Bell X1 members Paul Noonan and Dave Geraghty, the Thrills' Conor Deasy, and Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.

A record of such atypical structure -- and with no feasible way to tour behind it -- was almost inevitably going to fall through the cracks; indeed, it seems mostly to have gone unnoticed since its overseas release in December 2006 as a benefit for Oxfam, an international organization fighting poverty and injustice. (The record received a U.S. release in November 2007 via Yep Roc.)

This one deserves a closer look, though, because of how well it hangs together as a whole -- which is maybe why they decided to present it as a "band" album rather than a various-artists collection. Ritter's rendition of Noonan's "Vapour Trail" is one of the catchier numbers he's recorded, while Nina Persson of Swedish band the Cardigans delivers a lovely reading of Canadian singer-songrwiter Emm Gryner's "Black Winged Bird". Pretty much every track here works, and they wisely held it to just nine songs, rather than allowing the oversized collective to create an overblown album that dipped into less-significant or self-indulgent material.

I'm not exactly sure who was the ringleader here -- or if anyone really was; they've certainly gone out of their way to present it as a very egalitarian endeavor -- but whoever all was responsible, they deserve kudos for doing such a fine job. It's a record that deserves better than to fade into oblivion.

adios,
peter

Posted by peter on May 22, 2008 12:36 PM | Permalink