Between Two Shores is Hansard’s third solo album and, rather than finding him adrift as its title might suggest, it sees him grounded as a solo artist for the first time.  Plenty of the songs from his first two outings would’ve passed unnoticed as Frames songs but this album really seems to put an end to all of that.  I will always associate Glen Hansard with the raw crunch and visceral angst of ‘Pavement Tune’ and the Zeppelin crashings of ‘The Stars Are Underground’ (that said, I do always seem to be about twenty years behind the times) but that urgent, exploratory rock of youth has totally given way to an effortless songwriting maturity and an altogether more seasoned approach to making records.