Time to check out another of the discographies I'm going through. This time it's
Neil Hannon, aka The Divine Comedy.
Although his debut album has apparently been disowned by him (possibly in much the same way
Cold Spring Harbor was by Billy Joel) it still remains as one of his recordings, and as I have never personally heard it I think it's incumbent upon me to do so. And so we start, as we always do, and as is always advisable, at the beginning. No we don't. I cannot find a full copy of his debut anywhere, so we're going to have to skip it and go straight to his second, but the one he thinks of as his true debut.
Artiste: The Divine Comedy
Nationality: Irish
Album: Liberation
Year: 1993
Label: Setanta
Genre: Chamber pop
Tracks:
Festive Road
Death of a supernaturalist
Berniece 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
Chronological position: Second album
Familiarity: I've heard almost all his albums at this point.
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: n/a
Best track(s): I love each and every track here.
Worst track(s):
Comments: There are so many different musical styles on this, and pretty much all of Hannon's albums, that they're hard to pigeonhole really. I mean, the opening track on this one is based on the cartoon character from the childhood of many of us, Mister Benn. A lovely piano drives the tune, with a beautiful rippling passage basically forming the chorus, as such. It's violin and cello though to take us into “Death of a supernaturalist”, with a dramatic, almost poetic feel to it, while more uptempo and poppy is the guitar-centric “Berniece bobs her hair”, and then he channels Bowie in “I was born yesterday”. Nice spoken passages against a soft guitar, the voice almost inaudible it's so low.
Off at a fine lick then for “Your daddy's car”, with what I believe may be a harpsichord leading the melody, very catchy and commercial. “Europop” is, well, a Europop song that pokes fun at the genre with a really memorable beat, including a super little organ solo that is so ironic, and then everything slows down for “Timewatching”. This is an interesting song for a few reasons. One, it's basically ripping off the entire melody of “When I fall in love”, and knows it: he even references the lyric in the song. As well as that, it comes up later in 1997's
A short album about love, which in itself is odd as that is, literally, a short album: only seven tracks on it and this is one of them. Why he chose to include an “old” song on such a short album is something I don't quite understand. Nevertheless, it's a beautiful, beautiful song, with a melancholy violin and mournful cello taking the song at a snail's pace and a perfect vocal from Neil. It's one of the few songs of his that has absolutely no percussion.
Another uptempo pop song then in the Britopop-like and hilariously-titled “The pop singer's fear of the pollen count”, with a droning kind of organ running “Queen of the south”, a slower song with a somehow ominous feel to it. Great vocal harmonies on this, while “Victoria Falls” has a Simon and Garfunkel idea about it, with some really nice jangly guitar and again great vocal harmonies. A doleful organ opens “Three sisters” before it develops into a kind of industrial rock bopper, and as it ends a steam-train puffs us into “Europe by train”, the only instrumental on the whole album but just as good as any of the rest of the tracks here. We end then on “Lucy”, another fantastic little midpaced pop/rock song which brings the curtain down well on what is an album without a single solitary fault. Incredible.
Overall impression: If this were to be taken as his “real” debut, one of the very best I've ever heard. I got into this after Casanova, which blew me away, but had this been my introduction to TDC I would have been just as happy and as impressed. Superb.
Hum Factor: 10
Surprise Factor: n/a
Intention: n/a