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Album Details

• Artist: The Frames
• Album: The Cost
• Label: Anti
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2007-03-26

Ireland's The Frames attempt to top one of their best albums, Burn The Maps, with The Cost. Now, I really liked Burn The Maps but somewhere along the way they lost me. The Cost seems to relish in Adult Contemporary moody pop. Oh, it's decent for what you would expect in that vein but they seem to have lost a bit of edge over the course between the two albums. I believe it is the steady pace of all of the songs on this album that bore me silly. The opening track, "Song For Someone" sadly sets the pace at a trudging tempo. "Falling Slowly" seems to pick things up ever so slightly but still, not much faster than a Coldplay ballad. "People Get Ready" starts out promising and builds quite nicely, making it the best track on The Cost. Then they drop it all for "Rise", a very quiet piano and guitar based ballad.

Don't count out The Frames, I would hope that they have something more up their sleeves. There is some good songwriting on The Cost but the problem lies in diversity. When you are writing slow ballad type songs you need to mix in a few upbeat ones otherwise people will be driven to boredom. I would say that the Cost has some good potential for singles, as these songs are fantastic, one at a time. But if you try to take in the whole deal then the goodness just gets watered down.

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