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The Divine Comedy |
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Yes, an entire page devoted to the Divine Comedy. Through the course of this page I hope to bring to life the story of the Divine Comedy and its Northern Irish frontman, Neil Hannon. |
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For their first album,Fanfare for a Comic Muse (1990), Neil played guitar, before going solo after the rest of the band went home. Thanks to Tracy, who sent me this picture. You rock. |
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The current band. In no particualr order: Miggy Barradas (drums), Stuart 'Pinkie' Bates (organ/synth/trombone), Rob Farrer (percussion), Neil Hannon (vocals/guitar),Bryan Mills (bass guitar), Ivor Talbot (guitar), Joby Talbot (piano/recorder/conductor in the earlier albums).That's seven. Neil has deceided to dump the band in favour of going solo once more. |
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DC's first big-selling album was Liberation, released in the summer of '92. It's best known track, and possibly one of DC's top selling singles, was Pop Singer's Fear of The Pollen Count. This is one of the best albums, and set the scene |
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A Short Album ABout Love was only seven tracks long, (including Timewatching, from the Liberation album), but it was the first album DC released as a formal group, (as in the picture above). Previously, It had been Neil Hannon, Joby Talbot and |
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for even better things to come. Mixing European pop sounds with sombre dirges, right through to William Wordwoth's "Lucy" as the final�. Probably the most diverse of the albums, although overshadowed by its relatives to come. TRACK LIST: Festive Road; Death of a Supernaturalist; Bernice Bobs her Hair; I was Born Yesterday; Your Daddy's Car; Europop; Timewatching; POP SINGER'S FEAR OF THE POLLEN COUNT; Queen of the South; Victoria Falls; Three Sisters; Europe by Train; Lucy. |
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different intrumentalists on each album. Only one single came from this album, but it was still a good selection of songs. Mainly happy love songs, it was definitely a feel-good album, but lacked varietyin places. Still, it has great performances from the entire band throughout, and is well worth a tenner. TRACK LIST: In Pursuit of Happiness (Theme from Tomorrow's World); EVERYBODY KNOWS (EXCEPT YOU); Someone; If...; If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Me); Timewatching (remember it?); I'm All You Need. |
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Two years on, DC surpassed anything that they had done before. Gone were the poppy sing-a-longs of the previous album, and were replaced by some of Neil's best orchestral compositions. Nearly all the songs were orchestra-based |
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8 years after their first album, Neil had become tired of Dc's image, and decided that this would be DC's final album in their original incarnation. It has a suitably macabre feel, and even in bubbly pop songs like Generation Sex, a |
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and with Neil's vocals characterising each song to a T, Promenade was possibly the best DC album. From the musings of Bath right through to the energy-filled Tonight We Fly crashing though to bring a truly great album to and end. The Summerhouse was the only single from the album, and although one of the best early vocal performances, didn't get the reception it deserved. TRACK LIST: Bath; Going Downhill Fast; The Booklovers; A Seafood Song ("you shall have a fishy on a little dishy, you shall have a fishy when the boat comes in", thats where it came from); Geronimo; Don'tLook Down; When the Lights Go out All Over Europe; THE SUMMERHOUSE; Neptune's Daughter; A Drinking Song; Ten Seconds To Midnight; Tonight We Fly (one of my personal favourites). |
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reference to Princess Diana's death the previous year (the paps, take snaps, through telephoto lenses, chase Mercedes-Benzes through the night) appears, and other songs, like Thrillseeker, Life on Earth and Here Comes the Flood, deal directly with death and mortality. As a DC album, it is a far cry from Casanova and Promenade, and suffers from self-parody and clich� (oo that sounded intelectual), and is really a poor album. Unfortunately its the one everyone remebers. C'est la Vie! Still, there are still some amusing tid-bits, like Sweden and National Express, and a sign of hope is found in Sunrise, an inspiring piece about the political situation in Northern Ireland. Ironic though, how 3 years on, we are still no closer to the peace that Neil saw in the Sunrise. TRACK LIST: GENERATION SEX; Thrillseeker; Commuter Love; Sweden; Eric the Gardener; NATIONAL EXPRESS; Life on Earth; THE CERTAINTY OF CHANCE; Here Comes the Flood; Sunrise. |
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"The Divine Comedy's Casanova. A collection of songs for bass, baritone and ensemble, inspired by the writings of the 18th century Venetian gambler, eroticist and spy". 1996 will be remebered not only for England reaching |
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And then silence. Three long years were taken for this new-look DC album to come out; and like anything that takes that long, it was a major disappointment (for me anyway). Gone were the beautiful songs and even the humour of |
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the semi-final of the European Championships (they were lucky >:p), but also for the defining DC album. With a return to pop and an entire album devoted to European culture, this was Vintage Divine Comedy. Three singles were released from the album, and another classic pop song, Something for the Weekend, came into being. The album was probably DC's best, and even if you aren't really a fan, it's still very much worth buying. Unfortunately, this marked the beginning of the end for DC, as none of the three albums released after Casanova came close to matching it. While DC were on top form, they produced some of the best pop albums of the 90's. But thats just my unbiased opinion. TRACK LIST: SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND; BECOMING MORE LIKE ALFIE; Middle-Class Heroes; In & Out of Paris & London; Charge; Songs of Love (theme from Father Ted); THE FROG PRINCESS; A Woman of the World; Through a Long & Sleepless Night; Theme from Casanova; The Dogs & the Horses. |
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many songs were notably absent. As one critic said:(see? I did do some research for this) "The comedy is all but gone, and has taken some of the divine with it". This was a completely new DC, and a great deal had changed for the release of Regeneration. It was now solely an indie band, and was greatly hampered by it. Only a handful of songs had an orchestral backing of any description, and oddly enough, they were the ones that sounded good. How odd. A breath of fresh air was promised, but it failed to bring it, instead delving into social comment, personal views, and ended up almost totally devoid of originality. Nevertheless, there were still redeeming qualities (aren't there always?), Bad Ambassador, Perfect Lovesong and Love What you Do were good songs in their own rights, but couldn't carry the rest of the album on their shoulders. Worth borrowing off someone, but don't bother buying it. TRACK LIST: 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. |
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The Band... |
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Good news! Neil has indeed decided to make another solo album, under the name of the Divine comedy. I can't remember the exact release date, but some time next year. Hooray! Thank you for reading. |
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