The Divine Comedy
"Whoooooooooooooooooooooo!"
CONTENTS:
- CASANOVA
It's hard to believe that this band only some year ago was REM-sounding! Yes, that's true - they even released some album(s), which I am very eager to get, whether Divine Comedy was an REM rip-off back then. (It was some time since I wrote my last review, and I'm feeling like a newbie again! I almost don't remember how to write!)
Anyway, historical matters being put aside, the album is something as unusual as a really originally sounding album in the 90's, with a previously unheard mixture of rock, classical and Neil Hannon's own ambitious ideas, and I just can't call the result anything except "art", so I'll stick on that until somebody else comes up with something smarter.
The record's general sound is mostly mood-raising, and it's sounding really fresh as well. And, British indie! Sadly, it's not all that musically perfect, otherwise I'd certainly give the album some 15 points, so one point down there, but by heck, as a whole it's still an extremely thrilling listening experience! Once you get into it, that is - which did take me some several listenings! 5-9 listenings, that is, if you're a Heroes Of Might And Magic fanatic like me. But then I'm not yet that proficient with indie pop/rock, though this Divine Comedy experience has made a strong interest grow!
The album opens with the short "Festive Road", which in its turn opens with some nice piano melody, and then add to that Neil's gentle vocals, and onto that, some vocal harmonies and you have a tune that sets the mood for the whole album, and it is pretty geniously written, just by the way, and it's almost a shame that Neil didn't write a longer song with the themes in this little two-minute thingy, but what the, it workse well as it is, so I shouldn't complain. "Death Of A Supernaturalist" has a harpsichord and a string arrangement, and it is a pretty great orchestrated pop tune, and it adds to the concept that "Festive Road" started.
"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is more of an indie pop tune, with catchy melodies in the chorus as well as in the verses. It has got a sophisticated arrangement, and in most ways it is something more than most other pop songs. It has a nice mood, by the way.
"I Was Born Yesterday" sounds as the continuation to "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", and I almost cannot tell when the earlier song moves over into this one. Did I say that almost all of the songs are linked together? There's just no room to catch the breath in between the songs! Anyway, "I Was Born Yesterday" switches between being a calm, moody thingy and a quite loud chorus. Aw, well, it's not an awesome song, but it has its charm, and it certainly ain't bad! Especially that hook in the chorus is really strong.
"Your Daddy's Car" is another upbeat pop tune with a harpsichord. Harpsichords rules. Gotta use one whenever I get a more serious band. Anyway, to remain on the subject, the song is pretty gentle and has an innocent charm. It's nothing like those bluesy, speedy rock instrumentals usually having the words "car" or "cruise" in their names, it's more like an, um, innocent, quite childish but still sophisticated and with a great mood and whatever, it is great. And then comes a tune called "Europop", and I guess you've got a feeling what that one's about...It is actually pretty good, though, it's just the synthetic stick with the drum machine and that part with only vocals and a synthesizer that sounds just as bad as some europop. I've got a feeling that this tune either was necessary to accomplish the album's theme, or was meant to be a parody, and in either case it's acceptable. And hey, those parts sounding exactly like some Depeche Mode or something DO rule, believe it or not!
"Timewatching" is a calm ballad, again with a really
artsy touch, thanks to the beautiful string arrangement. Neil's vocals are great,
and the parts of the song where some actual hook is added sounds lovely, and
I can't help being nostalgic when something sounds as, um, well, as if it was
some soundtrack from any 50's romantic film!
"Pop Singers Fear Of The Pollen Count" opens with some "Are you
ready? Okay, let's do it!" and something like that has never sounded as
right as before, 'cause this time it's a keyboard-driven indie rock tune with
an incredibly charming atmposphere! It sounds timeless - it could have been
written in the 60's as well as in the 21st century, and it's just so dang amazingly
catchy! And mood-raising! And three times better than Dire Strait's "Walk
Of Life"! Did you get me there? If Neil Hannon sings that he's "in
love with the summertime", then I'm in love with "Pop Singers Fear
Of The Pollen Count"! AWESOME, man!
"Queen Of The South" is again of the artsier kind, with a smooth organ line keeping the song going. The vocals have otherwise most of the hooks, while the guitar only plays some indie sounding notes. Its third theme, which could probably be called the chorus, is especially strong. "Victoria Falls" is extremely indie, with an acoustic guitar taking up a lot of the sound picture. It is moody, but dark this time, and there's a certain apocalyptic touch. It is extraordinarily well-written, and be it indie or not, but the most similar song I can think of is probably "Back In NYC" by Genesis, though this tune has a certain frustrated atmosphere which I don't think I've ever heard of before. And why hold back praises? This is glorious!
"Three Sisters" is calmer, but has also a dark atmosphere, and it's calm until a loud industrial noise is added and surprises the listener. Now that some organs and guitars and stuff is added, it would sound like any other indie tune if it wasn't for that scary, metallic industrial noise I've mentioned. Some oriental instrument has some themes towards the end as well. Moody.
"Europe By Train" also has some industrial noises, this time imitating a steam train. And to a background of those steam train noises, a distorted keyboard has the main melody, but some other instruments fills up in the background. It is a loud, seemingly chaotic mess, or rather sound collage, with a mood-raising theme, and when a mandolin or something (not distorted this time - luckily) comes in, well, I wanna go Europe by train! Especially Scotland! And Irish folk melody onto the industry-sounding, never-stopping background just has a special charm. Hey, I wanna go by an old train with waggons made by wood! And it really has to be a steam train! Well, the train slows down and stops after some four and a half minutes of travelling, and then comes "Lucy", a British country-side lovestory! There's even some sheep in the background - cool or what?! It has an awesome mood! That horn towards the end is gorgeous as well, er, as hell, and, well, what can I say? I'm stunned! Petrified! Ecstatic! This album IS really awesomely awesome! It's a shame that there is some tunes which are a little bit weaker, 'cuz otherwise this album would probably be the first 15-pointer from the 90's, and perhaps even the only one. But it's still one of the strongest musical experiences one can get, and I don't feel any regret at all putting that plus after the 14!
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Liberation didn't sell too well, which could have caused two things: 1) Neil Hannon decides to change style in order to sell more, or 2) Neil Hannon decides to continue in the vein he started and hopes that the audience will realise his supposed genious. If Liberation would have been a sell-out, which would have caused any of these two scenarios to arrive: 1) Neil Hannon decides to slicken his style somewhat in order to sell more, or 2) Neil Hannon decides to continue in the vein he started and hopes that the audience won't get bored, but we really didn't have to ramble about this illuminated scenario, since it's already a fact that Liberation didn't sell to well...so, well, Neil luckily decides to follow alternative 2) and continues in the same vein as he begun, and so he eventually ended up with this album in the record stores.
And so this Promenade album features some string arrangements here and there, and now and then even some oboes or saxes, and of course some well-thought songs. And, well, the songs all have a throughoutly going theme of friendship and about friends being with each other and so on, and nothing wrong about that. The main problem is that this time there's no refreshing indie rock tunes, no "Europe By Train", mostly "only" some Divine Comedy-ish tunes attempting to be beautiful and moody, and, in most cases, successful at this. Sadly, the fresh and "new" mood of Liberation is gone, and so is most of the diversity, but what the, it's still a really good album! It DOES sound a bit less sophisticated than before, though, with few intriguing arrangements and more , um, sane and sober, whatever that might mean...And no, I DON'T mean that the songs are simple; they're as sophisticated as before, it's the arrangements that are less sophisticated and plain this time, which makes the album seem, um, not as 3-dimensional as Liberation..
The opening tune is "Bath", which, in its turn, opens with some sea sounds, some vocals, and then some piano and cello and violin is added in a repetitive theme, which slowly gets more decked out, until the whole song suddenly moves over into a pretty upbeat tune, but it's quite non-saying, and Neil surely can write better songs than this one.
"Doing Downhill Fast" is even more upbeat, with a nice string arrangement, which is some of the most sophisticated thingy on the whole album, and it has a melody which I associate with Scotland. As a whole, a really good song.
"The Booklovers" is a six-minute tune, almost all the time being about Neil saying a well-known author's name, and somebody saying something after each inroduction, accompanied by some strings and stuff. The arrangement works pretty well this time as well, but it gets really tedious after some time. There's two bridges, though, where the song changes structure and becomes a smooth, beautiful thingy which lasts for far too little time. It's still a nice tune, but, as mentioned, it gets really tedious after some while.
"A Seafood Song" opens with some dark, moody strings, but soon moves over into an upbeat little rocker, with strings inadequately replacing a guitar or maybe brass section, and that's where this album differs from the earlier, where almost every song was what it was, and not a pretender to be some genious mixture of strings and rock. Well, the song has some moments, but anything from the earlier album is still much better.
"Geronimo" has a tight string arrangement and some strong hooks, but it's far too short and will soon move over into...
"Don't Look Down", which opens with some pretty simple string/piano interplay which seems to me pretty similar to the average first attempt of making something classical. After some minute it becomes a guitar-driven indie tune, but with some orchestra fading in more and more. This time around, everything except of the into works really good, and it's probably the first really great tune on the album, and it quite introduces a row of really awesome tracks.
"When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe" is of the moodier kind, with a pretty impressive piano/orchestral opening, a vocal melody well-suited for the accompaniment, which in its turn is consisting of more orchestra and some drums and a base. The pretty dark mood and the genious which leavens the whole song makes it the second truly great tune of the album. And, the arrangement works really good!
"The Summerhouse" has another great arrangement, and it has a positive, beautiful atmosphere. It IS really beautiful, the gentle ballad it is. It has a gorgeous oboe solo, or if it is English horn, that's not up to me to guess, but it sounds great, and I guess that's was matters most in the end. Ah well. It needs to be experienced. Several times. Simply gorgeous.
"Neptune's Daughter" has some incredibly neat piano
themes, and from time to time, when the vocals are only accompanied by that
piano, it sounds like some great tune from the earlier half of the 20th century.
It has a syncopized cello line now and then (hey, maybe Neil has listened to
Nick Drake and his "Cello Song"??) There's an awesome vocal hook which
can be looked upon as some sort of chorus or main theme, and believe me when
i say that it is gorgeous! The latter, choral part of the song makes it grow
even more, and when some violins are added, well, yum-yum.
"A Drinking Song" opens with a really cheesy burp, long live Aerosmith's
"Eat the Rich", and is a jolly little tune which I suppose works well
as, well, a drinking song, but I don't know, teetotaller as I pretend to be.
Anyway, it is a nice little thingy, but it's not great in any way, and the string
arrangement seems pretty inadequate from time to time - there should be something
more, what about some woodwinds?
"Ten Seconds To Midnight" is a gentle ballad with a sacral-sounding piano, son of a priest (hey! Son of a preacher man!) as the guy actually is. It's pretty short, and quite beautiful, but it should've been something more, say, a 5- or 6-minute epic with an orchestra and a chorus or something. Gentle and beautiful, though.
"Tonight We Fly" has the marching drum which is later used in "Something For The Weekend", and is a delightful, upbeat, positive tune BUT with some lacks in the arrangement. It gets better when a whole (small) choir is added to the vocal melody, but mood-raising as it is, it still feels one-dimensional.
Well, the album would undoubtly sound better with more sophisticated arrangements on some of the songs, which would add some further dimensions to the album as a whole, and therefore make it an even better listening. However, it is surely worth get, not the least because of the songs in the middle!
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In early 1996, a certain song entitled "Something For The Weekend" was played on British Radio 1's breakfast programme. It was then played frequently for a while, and the single started selling. The band, or rather artist, behind it was Divine Comedy, an alias for Neil Hannon, and he finally got one of his songs played in a pretty well-known radio programme, after some lots of year of fruitless strivings. The single was followed up with two other charting ones, "Becoming More Like Alfie" and "The Frog Princess", which, in their turn, were followed up by an album: Casanova!
On this album Neil suddenly starts singing about sex-related things, cunning women, boozing men, and whatever might come out of such a relationship. Another new thing with this album when compared with the earlier is the much more pompous orchestral arrangements, which probably is a result of the success of the three mentioned singles. Commercial success means money, and money, in this case, means a bigger and maybe even better orchestra. As if that was necessary, may you think, but the difference is really pretty big.
The first song is "Something For The Weekend", which opens with some females being attendanced by a male, then a jolly little "Whooo" and some marching drums, plus a really uplifting orchestral theme. It's really an uptempo, nice little retro pop tune, with an exceptionally strong balance between chorus and verse. It could have made a great Eurovision Song Contest winner some decades back, with emphasis on great.
"Becoming More Like Alfie" is another upbeat tune, opening with some vocals, a trumpet and an acoustic guitar, later on some strings are added, and the song then, um, not really explodes, but it goes over into the chorus nevertheless, and that chorus is really something special, with its vocals melody and the interplay within the band/orchestra. There's a guitar solo as well, which sounds really gentle and neat, far from sounding loud and distorted like many other guitar solos. Jazz guitar am rule.
"Middle-Class Heroes" opens with a pretty disharmonical string theme and some half-spoken vocals, pretty similar to Bo Kaspers Orkesters' Amerika, which is from the same year, but I doubt that none of the bands had heard the other's version. Anyway, the song goes on, some choruses here and there, a stick with some people's noises, and a change from the disharmonical arrangement to a rather"normal" one...Not really as great as the previous two tunes, but then those two are among the best ones I've heard from the 90's, so...
"In And Out Of Paris And London" is an unstoppable tune with some pretty heavy guitars driving it forward, and add to that a seemingly unserious string arrangement and some wanna-be-opera vocal and you've got a strange little thingy, punky in the number of guitar chords, but anti-punk in everything else. Again, not all THAt great, but very good.
"Charge" is another weird tune, with some pretty heavy verses, at least when the guitar and base comes in and plays a cool little line, and the pre-choruses are some loudly orchestrated, maredream-ish thingys, which moves over into some strange melodies every now and then being disturbed by a stupid piano line. The stick is almost calm, with softly spoken vocals and a neat little falsetto line, but it then moves over that maredreamy style once again, with some stupid "Bang, bang, bang" vocals...and as a whole, the tune is A BIT confusing, 'cause I don't know whether it's dang smart, dang great, or dang stupid, or just dang everything.
"Songs Of Love" has a neat little guitar melody, maybe with a harpsichord added some now and then, and it has some peaceful, emotional vocal lines. Put right after "Charge" as it is, it feels like some sort of the gentlest song ever made. Really worth a listen, and this time I can, with certainty, say that it sounds great.
"The Frog Princess" opens with a trumpet line which seems like a Marseillaise rip off, and that line returns some now and then. The verses has got some industially loud drums, but are otherwise pretty gentle, with a piano and all. The choruses are pretty overwhelmingly harmonic and tight, but there's some moments within them choruses which has nothing but some whistling and a trumpet, kinda like "Charge" in that way, but better, 'cause it's a much more harmonical tune with less unnecessary surprises.
"A Woman Of The World" has a pretty jolly verse, again with some whistling. A sax is added to diversify the song. The choruses are rather gothic-tuned and dark, though they moves over into the verses in a great way, this time with a chorus added. The climax comes within a louder, instrumental verse with lots of saxes, and so the song becomes a big band project, at least until it suddenly moves back into the old version of the verse with vocals and a saxophone. Anyway, a really nice little tune, and a great counterpoint to the nextcoming.
"Through A Long And Sleepless Night" is sounding like "real" industry HM, with real horns and drums, and therefore with a much more living atmosphere than what, say, Rammstein could ever create, and that is what makes it so scary. The vocals are energetic, half-spoken, twisted and sounding mad, with guitars and drums and strings to fill up the atmosphere, and you wouldn't believe how overwhelming it is until you hear it! The calm choruses could have been disturbing, but now they're a necessary break when one can finally catch the breath. The song has an almost through-going alarming sound, which adds to the nerve-crashing atmosphere of the song. It is a REALLY tough and listening, but in a great way. Awesome. Might be related to King Crimson's "Sleepless", not only by its name, but it has a similarly dark, perversely scary atmosphere.
"Theme From Casanova" has got a gentle horn theme to a soothing background, and it is an unvaluable moment of recovery from "Through A Long And Sleepless Night". It's really nothing special, but great within its gentleness. And, as mentioned, unvaluable.
"The Dogs And The Horses" opens with a calm piano theme, with some strings and a calm vocal melody, until it bursts into a pompous chorus, which could've been written by John Williams or Michael Kamen or whichever well-known American soundtrack-writer available. It's the verses that are great, though - these choruses are the only moments where the pompousness becomes disturbing on the whole album.
There's too much trumpets which could've been replaced with other instruments in some places to make the record more diverse, but besides of that, nothing to complain about. You should try to get it.
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Now that Casanova had sold in some ten thousand copies, Neil Hannon found it economically possible to hire a whole orchestra, and he eventually did. This stuff was recorded live, and I've got a feeling that this is just what Neil had always dreamed about. To have an orchestra performing his songs live, that is. The actual songs are some new ones, some previously unreleased ones plus "Timewatching" from Liberation. Doesn't feel too funny, does it? But step into the album with an open heart - the songs DO surprise positively. Maybe some gives unnecessarily clear winks to Scott Walker, but that's obviously not necessarily a bad thing. Not that I yet have heard Scott Walker, but I've read this on several sites, so it must be true! Anyway, all the songs are about love, so it's no lie to call the album A Short Album About Love. And love rules, right? See - there's at least one in beforehand good thing!
The first song is "In Pursuit Of Happiness",
which opens with some Pet Sound-ish orchestra sounds, before
the song becomes a really upbeat and happy pop tune with a great string melody
in the background. This is a real Divine Comedy mood-raiser! The orchestral
part in the middle-to-end isn't as happy, though - rather serious stuff. And
since I love the first part much more, the second part drags down the song from
being a strong candidate to be the "Best Song".
"Everybody Knows (Except You)" is also pretty good-moody, with
some pretty Eurovision-ish hooks, but that's all right. The main stuff is upbeat
balladeering, pretty great as well, and the hook in the chorus is really strong.
It's not really as refined and sophisticated as the best stuff on the earlier
album, though, but still a song for a good album.
"Someone" is the most Scott Walker-ish song on here, and it's a ballad with a dark atmosphere and some really strong orchestral hooks, especially the guitar line, but the strings does a great job with keeping the mood as well, together with the brass. And, um, it's just quite VERY beautiful, be it non-typical for The Divine Comedly or not. REALLY intriguing orchestration!
"If..." opens as a calm ballad driven by a piano and an organ. Imagine that this COULD have been Nick Drake! "Nothern Sky", you know? Sadly, this tune isn't really up to that song's standard, but it's not far from! The horns are pretty gorgeous, not to mention the oboe solo. Oh, well, actually it's not the solos themselves - it's the solos together with all the other lots of instruments that sounds great! And, um, that's great, I suppose.
"If I Were You" is a quite calm tune with a lot of Divine Comedy-ish hooks. The choruses might be too soft and mainstream, but that's a thing I can tolerate once. One time is no time, two times are two times too much, you know. GORGEOUS trumpet solo part! Almost gives me goose pimples!
"Timewatching" is dark, really dark, opening as some sort of funeral tune or something. There is some part where the song gains some intgenseness from being just dark, and when the double bass pizzicattos are added, it gets really great. In the end it's moodiness that makes the song as great as it is.
"I'm All You Need" is rather a rocker, with an organ having a pretty good hook, and with pretty unusually much guitars and drums. The chorus, where some brass is added, it gets really good, and the hooks suddenly works much better. The end of the instrumental part is the best moment, though, 'casue by then the brass section has a REALLY great line play! The ending isn't too well-worked, though - almost doesn't sound like an ending.
Well, one of the problem with the album IS that it's too short - some 15 or 20 minutes more would raise the rating to a 12. However, that's not the only problem; the songs aren't as great as we're used to, and they're, err, so lame - there's no real power or intenseness in the songs! But, well, still good, but not more.
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A Short Album About Love was a great album, not only within the fact that it's a really good album, but also because it eventually lead to this! This time around, see, Neil Hannon finally realised that what he needed to improve Divine Comedy's sound was a whole orchestra - not only a string section and a trumpet, as on Casanova. So he sat down and wrote some mostly orchestrated stuff, probably inspired by the better of the modern musicals and stuff by Mike Batt and other rock-inspired composers, plus maybe some Michael Nyman, although I'm not sure about that.
And yes, the album is mostly an improvement over Casanova rather than over A Short Album About Love, since this time there's no lacks in the songwriting, maybe except of "Eric The Gardener", but only because of its pointless repeating of itself. And, as mentioned, the stuff is rather symphonic epics than rock songs, and I haven't really been fed up with that kind of stuff in the 90's! Not to mention the 80's, where almost everything was about the synth. So for me, and probably many others, this is the long awaited reward for a long and fruitless waiting of a record in these veins. Of course, DC's earliest albums could fit as well, but they're still not as good as this, and they weren't as carefully arranged, with less orchestra.
The album opener, "Genneration Sex", consists of some of the best moments of Promenade, with some Casanova-like lyrics. It's an uptempo poppy tune with lots of great hooks and some great strings/horns, and even a guitar solo. It's a mood-raising tune, with some very modern-sounding orchestrations, but that ain't a bad thing. Retro-sounding orchestrations just too often ends in a catastrophe. Anyway, really great tune, and it's weird that it didn't sell much, the catchy single it was. But who said that the commercial public has predictable tastes?
"Thrillseeker" is a darker, more powerful tune, with pretty calm verses, but really heavy choruses with an electric guitar and some mighty orchestra. The verses are mostly consisting of some vocals, drums and guitars, though there is one verse where the guitar is heavier and some orchestra is added. This tune could have been a Metallica tune from their S&M, but it's more tasteful and not so focused on being heavy, even if it's probably the continuing of "Through A Long And Sleepless Night".
"Commuter Love" opens with some accordion or something, before it moves over into a vocals/piano-dominated ballad with some slow drums in the background. The pre-chorus movement (or if it maybe even is the chorus!) is brilliant, and it moves over into a part with noisy guitars, and above all a string melody. It once again returns to the verse, this time with some more instrumentation. After some while comes a mighty guitar solo, pretty Steve Howe-sounding, and then that chorus part comes once again, and fades over into the intro once again, which this time works as the outro. And if you're complaining about the fact that I'm unnecessarily detailed, it's just because I dig the song!
"Sweden" has a great theme (hm-mm!) about how great Sweden is. Neil does get some things wrong, we're not all blonde and tall and healthy, and if you wanna see the midnight sun you've got to live REALLY high up in the North! Anyway, I'm really just a bit embarrassed...we're not too fed up with foreign eulogizes! Anyway, the song is really good, with a really pompous, almost Beethoven-like theme in the chorus. And believe me when I say that it is MIGHTY! The verses are pretty calm, though, And besides of the lyrics, it's a really, really good tune.
"Eric The Gardener" opens with a neat keyboard melody accompanying only Neil. Soon some strings are added, and it seems as if this is going to be a really great ballad, and when some more instrumentation is added to the chorus, well, mmm. When the song returns to the verse, though, a synth is added and adds a touch of electronica, and that pretty much destroys the song, which won't reach the heights it reached in the beginning again. Which is a shame, since it could have been a really great tune if it was at least three minutes shorter (as it is now, it's over 8 mins long) and without that completely unnecessary synth.
"National Express" was the song that sold, this time, and it guaranteed the band, or Neil, a pretty fair selling of the album as well. It is a jolly, captivating tune with some really great hooks, and the orchestra makes it twice as much better as it would have been if it was only a rock song. Now, though, it's an awesome, upbeat, charming tune, and the choir in the chorus adds something extra as well. Exciting, I say.
"Life On Earth" has again some of that accordion which also was in "Commuter Love", and the intro is actually almost identical. It is a quite dark, reflecting ballad with a certain touch as if it was coming right out from some Zelda videogame. It's really gorgeous, though, and haven't you also thought that the music on the Zelda games on SNES and N64 are among the best you can find? And, by heck, I'm not even ceratin if I'm right in this - I've just got that feeling, and web reviewing is meant to be about writing down your thoughts about an album, isn't it?
"The Certainty Of Chance" is a gentle song with lots of orchestra and a mighty chorus with a nice piano line. The verses, on the other hand, are pretty similar to some of the stuff on the earliest albums. This tune sounds really good as well.
"Here Comes The Flood" is powerful. Mightily powerful. A male choir sings the main theme quite quietly accompanied by some guitar and drums and stuff, before an intruguing orchestration is added and the song's geniousness is so thick that it feels as if one could almost touch it. The part in the middle, where most of the orchestra is gone, a piano comes in and plays the main theme instead, and by then you'l realised how great it is, if you haven't already. Genious. Simply.
"Sunrise" has an intriguing instrumentation, once with a slow vocal/string melody but pretty fast drums, once with the slow vocals melody and an entire orchestra doing a tremolo through a ritardando, and after that comes a calm part with a harpsichord and a glockenspiel, and after that comes the general musical-ending with a mood-raising melody and some mighty vocals, and it's just AWESOME, just as the whole album except of "Eric The Gardener". One of the best 90's albums out there.
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Well, since Fin de Siecle sold pretty well, Neil Hannon found it economically certain that a change of style wouldn't actually ruin the band's economy too soon, and so here we are an album sometimes similar to Liberation and Promenade, but with less strings (and almost no horns at all! Only synths!) and with a darker atmosphere. More Nick Cave-ish! Well, this COULD actually have been Nick Cave doing indie and with four extra members of The Bad Seeds, 'cause the arrangements are all great and very sophisticated, like on Liberation! It's not as "naked" as most of Cave's stuff is.
When I first heard this album, it seemed pretty dull to my ears, and no matter if I played it four more times, it still seemed dull. When I sat down and should review it, though, I had to listen really carefully, just to make sure I could come up with some intelligent (!) arguments about how dull it was, and that was where my turning point was! At last I noticed all the hooks and arrangements and vocals, and occasionally, the catchiness, and whatever, so I reviewed something else instead, I think it was Brothers In Arms, and gave the album another five listenings, and it has only got better in my ears since then! Hey, that was a long sentence. Anyway, it was well worth the effort it took me!
And, there's some historical facts as well! Neil decided to change record company, and this is DC's first album on Parlophone. Their last album on the earlier label was a Best Of compilation whose name I've forgotten, just as I've forgotten the record label's. Anyway, the "band" coupled up with some star producer named Nigel Godrich, and here we are.
The first song is "Timewatching", oh, sorry, "Timestretched", but it is a mellow ballad in many ways similar to "Timewatching", not the least because of the name! Well, it has a neat guitar line, and lots of synth sounds to fill up the picture, and a carillon...hey, awesome mood!
"Bad Ambassador" is a quite rocking tune, now and then sounding like Manic Street Preachers, with some strong hooks here and there. The chorus is what takes up most space in the speakers, especially when a string section is added, and the instrumental part is really quite breathtaking. The song impersonates a "good Divine Comedy arrangement", I'd say. It was the biggest single sell-out from the album, just by the way.
"Perfect Lovesong" has a little noise in the background, and what immediately comes into mind is "Liberation!" The gentle atmosphere, the fantastic vocals/flute interplay, with the most awesomely positive and uplifting mood on the whole album. Well, as a whole, it is the most Liberation-like tune here, with that acoustic guitar and all, so, a hit in the bullseye for me!
"Note To Self", is, on the contrary, the darkest and most Nick cave-ishly dark and pessimistic tune here, and it strongly contrasts to the earlier song. It has a bass line which could come right out from "Stagger Lee", and together with the guitar and half-speaking vocals, the first part of each verse just HAS to be Nick Cave! Well, anyway, when the chord progression changes, and Neil starts singing something, it's not that much Nick Cave anymore, but the feeling comes back when a loud, heavy stick with a mighty guitar comes in, and since Neil sings "what the fuck is happening", well, the feeling grows stronger. The reason why I chose it as "worst song" is that it's too long, four minutes would have been enough, but it's a cool tune nevertheless. And hey - there isn't anything worse here, so...
"Lost Property" has a "Neptune's Daughter"-ish piano line, and an acoustic guitar, and a Promenade-ish feeling immediately appears. But, in opposite of most songs on Promenade, more and more instruments are added, and the song evolves into a huge unit, and that is where Promenade loses against most of DC's albums. And, even if the dark atmosphere doesn't really suggest it, this song is really pretty beautiful.
"Eye Of The Needle" is even darker, with a nice keyboard line adding a hook to the otherwise pretty dull song, and, um, great atmosphere, and pretty great tune, but it DOES pass through the ears without doing much noise about itself. It has a neat little carillon as well.
"Love What You Do" is more pure Divine Comedy, with an upbeat melody and a nice mood, intriguing melodies beneath the vocals, and so on...really great. The chorus, with the not too innovative lyrics "if you want it, you can have it" and so on, but it's catchy, really catchy! The verses improves as well, and so on. Gorgeous song.
"Dumb It Down" is another tune in the moody school, with some sounds of crickets in the background and a calm vocal melody with accompaniment by every other general rock instrument. The choruses are what makes the song, though, with a gorgeous chord progression versus vocals theme, and there's the song's greatness.
"Mastermind" is a masterpiece, you don't need a mastermind to see that. (yeah, the lyrics has some similar line) It is a gentle tune, with an acoustic guitar and a piano and some string during the first verse and chorus, but that gradually improves. The chorus, where Neil sings "tell me that I'm normal, tell me that I'm sane" and stuff, are extraordinarily beautiful, well...mmm..."Set your mind and spirit free" and have a helluva great five minutes!
"Regeneration" opens with some electric guitar and vocals, just before the din-din, you know. For the song soon becomes a slow, Manic Street Preachers-esque rock tune with a dark mood and an intriguing style. The song remains similar until another guitar comes in and plays a quite heavy figure, and the song's intruguingness at last results in something. Well, after some more while, it moves back into that Manic style, but once again moves over into that mighty part with the powerful guitars. And, at last, in contrasts to...
"The Beauty Regime" in a great way, since this new song is a calm, gentle and beautiful indie-rocky tune. It sounds really great, but I don't know how to explain it any further. You'd better get the album yourself. But DON'T let it be your first DC album, get, say Fin de Siecle first and dig that one before you get into the rather narrow earliest and this latest album. It'll be REALLY interesting to see what Neil will come up with next time, which should be around late 2002 or early 2003. He has already said that he'll probably dismiss most of today's band. Well, time will tell...
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