What score did they give it... Its funny you should say this, but I once stopped buying HotPress because of the LACK of coverage of the frames...back in the old days.. now i just dont buy it cause its rubbish

they give it 6 out of 10... i haven't actually heard the album yet but i'm guessing that a couple of points the reviewer made actually hit the nail on the head... which is kinda surprising for a hotpress review

i still buy hotpress at work somethimes . Iv nothing against it ,and the tent at Electric Picnic was GREAT !! I got to meet DEUS !!

Una liked it a lot in the Tribune there last week (that is Cluas Una right? first time i'd seen the Tribune in a long time)

yeah, I like the album. Have listened to it at least a few times since I reviewed it, which rarely happens.

The Frames The Cost (Plateau) 18 Sep 2006 I know it’s bad form these days to bring up partition in polite company, but when reviewing a new album by The Frames, there really is no alternative. Ireland, after all, is divided between those who turn each of their gigs into quasi-religious happenings, and those who, should they find the band playing at the bottom of their garden, would gladly pull the curtains shut. Believers view Hansard & Co’s brew of emotive folk-tinged rock as a shining example of durability and authenticity in image-obsessed days. Atheists see it as the grim apotheosis of the strain of phoney singer-songwriting that was especially virulent in Dublin at the latter part of the last decade. Agnostics remain largely unmoved. The Cost, it has to be said, is not a record that will inspire many cross-camp defections. Those who've followed the band along the route they’ve taken, from Dance The Devil, through For The Birds and up to Burn The Maps, will find much here to wave lighters and sing-along to at the gigs. The swoonsome opener ‘Song For Someone’ establishes a template of string-driven balladry that ‘People Get Ready’, ‘The Side You Never Get To See’ and ‘Sad Songs’ take up with gusto. Carrying war-wounds from many different campaigns, you might expect that by now the band’s desire to keep on tilting at the great crossover windmill would have waned somewhat. But, judging by ‘Falling Slowly’, the last-minute skin-saving service that ‘Run’ provided for Snow Patrol may have encouraged them to go over the top once more. The logic is that it could be huge. The unconvinced will no doubt be surprised to find hints (‘The Cost’ and ‘Bad Bone’) of a band attempting to marry harmony with dissonance in a way that could almost see them taking on the mantle of a Celtic Wilco (indeed a previous working relationship with Steve Albini would suggest a sturdier creative instinct than detractors credit The Frames with). Unfortunately, though, with a default setting of bombast, this intriguing prospect is only partially exploited. It’s clear that The Frames inhabit a place in Irish affections similar to the one Paul Weller enjoys in England – review-proof, cocooned by a fanatically loyal fanbase from wider criticism, and locked into a familiar musical space that they seem content to maintain rather than renovate. Fair enough: they have found their metier. But the suspicion lingers that were they to find a way of preaching to the unconverted, the rewards would be much greater. Colin Carberry Rating: 6 / 10

snot press

Is it not time The Frames got their own discussion board on cluas...twood solve loads of problems

I hear Bruce Springsteen admires Glen Hansard's on stage performance, thats good enough for me, they are a band worthy of universal respect if not love

So if Hot Press don't like it does this mean it's good?

I hate the way most Frames reviews are about them 'finally crossing over' or 'getting new fans'. Shouldn't an album review be about the album and the music on it?

In a years time very few people will remember this album. As a Frames fan I was disappointed with Burn the Maps. It started out with great promise with "Happy" and "Finally" and pretty quickly went nowhere...fizzled out.damp and uninteresting. The new one, after first listen yesterday, sounds the same. It just goes nowhere. Doesn't capture anything in particular. The songwriting is quite average in fairness. If you listen to Glens solo album he is really onto something there. Those songs have a a magical quality and the album feels like it has a beginning a middle and an end. It just reaches what it sets out to achieve. The new frames album doesn't have that quality in its own right. It sounds uncertain, all over the place, bit of this bit of that...I can't understand the use of two tracks from the solo album on the new frames album....and that is possibly a telling sign that Glen is not quite sure about musical direction re the frames or is not quite as ambitious about it as before. 'For the birds' was a bold album. Not only was it well written, it took risks and it fitted together so well. I bought it on vinyl recently and will be playing it in 20 yrs time no doubt. I really think the frames have waned on album since then. The live show is carrying their momentum big time...and deservedly so, they are unbeatable live...imagine scoring the frames against, for example, 'world beaters'..the killers..for live performance..the frames would leave them and their like for dust. But on record, the frames are waning and its down to uncertainty of purpose and direction. Purely my opinion: agree? disagree?

agree on a lot of those comments... you're dead right about for the birds and a lack of sense of direction since... ...but don't think the solo album was anything special... ...think the songwriting has gone downhill but it's the arrangements that really grate - the quiet start and big soaring bombastic finish... ah well - go back to working with craig ward and we may still get another great album out of them

Revelation. (Excuse the pun) The departure of Odlum. You're right, that's the key.

Here's the deal though, it's actually a good record. Certainly, the last album was, for some bizzare reason, a stopgap. Are the Frames afraid of crossing over? Does it suit them to be the biggest cults in Ireland??