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Liberation
- 6.5
Festive
Road/Death of a Supernaturalist/Bernice Bobs Her Hair/I Was Born
Yesterday/Your Daddy's Car/Europop/Timewatching/The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen
Count/Queen of the South/Victoria Falls/Three Sisters/Europe by
Train/Lucy
Neil
Hannon regarded this as the first real Divine Comedy album,
although it was really a solo effort with Hannon himself playing
most of the instruments.
Hannon bows to the works of
Checkov, Scott Fitzgerald and even Wordsworth as he proves to be a
rock literary heavyweight. Liberation is a flawed album but a real
starting point for classic efforts to come. It's almost as if
Hannon is flexing his muscles with nods towards synth on "Europop"
which features the kind of leering vocals that would find their
way onto Casanova. It's difficult with the value of hindsight to
reflect on how this would have been received in 1993. It's full of
chamber style orchestrations, overlaid with more modern beats and
would have sounded rather strange. It is only with the hindsight
of listening to the full back catalogue that you can see and feel
where Hannon is coming from, but more important where he is likely
to be going. There are so many styles included with Timewatching
even managing to sound like a chamber induced
"Somewhere". Elsewhere there are jingly singalongs like
"The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count" More than
anything else Liberation showed the emergence of Hannon as an
original talent that would blossom on subsequent albums
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Promenade
- 7
Bath/Going Downhill
Fast/The Booklovers/A Seafood Song/Geronimo/Don't Look Down/When the Lights Go Out All Over
Europe/The Summerhouse/Neptune's Daughter/A Drinking Song/Ten Seconds to
Midnight/Tonight We Fly/Ode to the Man
The
opening track Bath starts with an almost frightening classical
cello solo which makes us wonder just what we are in for here. A
classical rather than classic album is the answer as Neil Hannon
moves on a notch from Liberation, whilst keeping a similar feel.
Once again plenty of literary leanings with the very strange
Booklovers consisting of the listing of authors with some very
strange comments in the background. It's almost as if NH is trying
to be frightfully serious whilst poking fun at himself at the same
time. This is a concept album about two lovers spending the day at
the seaside. It sees the first appearance of the classically
trained Joby Talbot who would receive arranging credits on many
subsequent albums. "When the Lights Go Out All Over
Europe" shows Hannon's appreciation of French cinema and
"The Summerhouse" is a beautiful and highly poignant
song. The Michael Nyman influence is evident throughout the album
as Hannon has himself noted.
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Casanova
- 8
Something for the
Weekend/Becoming More Like Alfie/Middle-Class Heroes/In and Out of Paris and
London/Charge/Songs of Love/The Frog Princess/Woman of the
World/Through a Long and Sleepless Night/Theme from Casanova/The Dogs and the
Horses
From
the commercial viewpoint this was Divine Comedy's breakthrough
album and it's easy to see why. Apart from the fact that it
produced hit singles in "Something for the Weekend,"
"Becoming More Like Alfie" and "The Frog
Princess" it has a unique feel to it. Neil Hannon is at his
most lascivious and licentious and sex rears its "ugly"
head in many of the pieces- almost as if Hannon is a voyeur in his
own soap opera. There is also more of a rock/pop feel to the album
with a sing-a-long feeling to the opening two tracks which have a
huge feelgood factor and which became part of the DC diet. The
album certainly rattles along. Hannon is as literary as ever but
there is additional humour in this collection that gives it a very
unusual feel and which set it apart from much of the music finding
itself into the charts in 1996. Indeed it stuck out like a sore
thumb (without the soreness of course) and was responsible for my
attraction to Hannon's highly original slant on life. In the hands
of a lesser talent songs like Charge with its high pitched
falsetto part would sound plain ridiculous. In Hannon's hands it
is delightfully over the top. Incidentally an instrumental version
of "Songs of Love" appeared as the theme music to the
Father Ted television comedy.
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A
Short Album About Love - 7
In Pursuit Of
Happiness/Everybody Knows (Except You)/Someone/If.../If I Were You (I'd Be Through With
Me)/Timewatching/I'm All You Need
After
Casanova Neil Hannon changed direction to further develop his love
of Scott Walker style big ballads with a seven track mini album
simply about love. The word simple is not something that should be
attributed to these songs, however. They aren't exactly torch
songs but little love vignettes. As such they are more
straightforward in feel. Gone is the leering "dirty
raincoat" feel to be replaced by something altogether more
mature and that's how this mini album should be approached. It's
not groundbreaking, just a pleasant album of well produced
material. In reality just six songs as Timewatching original
appeared on the Liberation album.
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Fin
De Siecle - 8
Generation
Sex/Thrillseeker/Commuter Love/Sweden/Eric the Gardener/National
Express/Life On Earth/The Certainty Of Chance/Here Comes The Flood/Sunrise
Arguably the most complex and
charismatic of Divine Comedy's albums. The music is often intriguing
whilst losing nothing of the band's accepted quirkiness. Possibly a statement about
the end of the millennium but more likely an affirmation of life, this has
some stirring harmonies and beautiful pseudo classical pieces. There is pastiche a plenty
about this offering with Neil attempting German nightclub music with
"Sweden" and the full chorus giving vent on "Here Comes the
Flood." It is an album full of
changes in tempo and style with some thought provoking lyrics in the form
of "Life on Earth", the beautiful "certainty of
Chance" with its spoken poetical ending and "Sunrise" which
brings hope to Neil's troubled homeland of Ireland. Understated pieces
such as "Commuter Love" also have their own appealing
power. Above all the success of Fin
is that it stays fresh despite numerous plays.
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Regeneration
- 6.5
Timestretched/Bad
Ambassador/Perfect Lovesong/Note To Self/Lost Property/Eye Of The
Needle/Love What You Do/Dumb It Down/Mastermind/Regeneration/The Beauty
Regime
There
is definitely a more mainstream feel about this album which
represented another change of direction and arguably a more
modernistic feel about songs such as "Bad Ambassador.".
It starts very low key with the slow opening track "Timestretched"
There's plenty of melody here but I usually find myself drifting
away as there is little to really grab the attention although
"Eye of the Needle" is a typical DC number. I love the
lines "The cars in the churchyard are shiny and
German/completely at odds with the theme of the sermon."
Overall it isn't a great introduction to a major label (EMI). I
know that many people view this as one of their favourite DC
albums but for me there isn't enough about it to life it from the
mundane, although it is still a pleasant enough album.
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Absent
Friends - 7.5
Absent
Friends/Sticks & Stones/Leaving Today/Come Home Billy Bird/My Imaginary
Friend/"The Wreck of the Beautiful/Our Mutual Friend/The Happy
Goth/Freedom Road/Laika's Theme/Charmed Life
Much more understated than
albums such as Fin de Siecle and Cassanova, Absent Friends shows Neil in
slightly meditative muse. There's plenty of classical
strings here and plenty of mood changes and styles, but perhaps it lacks
the ingenuity of some of the other albums. And maybe it takes slightly
longer to get acquainted with what's on offer here - not instantly
accessible but nonetheless with the same trademark originality. Certainly Charmed Life, a
song to his daughter, is poignant, beautiful and optimistic "I always
seem to land upon my feet." He states adding that he snatches
victories from the jaws of defeat. This is a real joy of a song that
verges into vaudeville towards the end. Elsewhere other songs seem to
be heading into mediocrity only to be saved by choruses. Lyrically it's another strong
set with the title track particularly interesting and who else would get
away with using words like peripatetically "My Imaginary Friend"
and Iconoclastic Images "Freedom Road."
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Victory
of the Comic Muse - 7.5
To Die A
Virgin/Mother Dear/Diva Lady/A Lady Of A Certain Age/The Light Of
Day/Threesome/Party Fears Two/Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious
World/The Plough/Count Grassi's Passage Over Piedmont/Snowball In
Negative This
dovetails beautifully with "Absent Friends" and shows
Neil Hannon in fine songwriting form. To Die A Virgin takes up
where Generation Sex and National Express left off and for some
reason A Lady of a Certain Age reminds me of Peter Sarstedt's
"Where Do You Go To My Lovely." The lyrics are as
sharply observed as ever - this man is a genuine poet. There's
plenty of history interwoven within the more sentimental and
mischevious side of Hannon's writing that makes this as strong as
virtually anything else he has produced. There are moments of
great beauty and originality in an enjoyable album. |
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