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Album Review
by SaschaS
29-3-2004
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| Neil Hannon, man of style and substance |
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The Dream Academy: 'Absent Friends'
(Parlophone)
The Divine Comedy unravel 'chansons à clef'
As soon as The Divine Comedy’s title track opens ‘Absent Friends’ it is a lushly orchestrated affair with intelligent and informed lyrics that are sung in the style of that great lost torch vocalist - Scott Walker. Yeah, Neil Hannon is fan of that lost art of - chansons, as the French, and the Belgians in particular, pioneered although that Walker Bro appropriated and interpreted it so brilliantly.
‘Stick And Stones’ is even more [Jacques] Brel, with its violin driven melody and a Gallic-like sonic playfulness in the background. Of course, to the lesser extent, there is a certain influence of the great English popular composers, such as Sir Noel Coward, but this belongs much more to the European fold. [Aside the somewhat country-esque ‘Freedom Road’, obviously.]
There are moments when Mr Hannon - the cover shot depicts him as if being painted for an official pose in a green cord-suit, but without a waistcoat?! A Euro faux pas, mon homme! - gets it a tad overcooked, over-ambitious and over-[melo]dramatic, the case being ‘Leaving Today’. He then goes and sounds alike Sir Paul McCartney [wise course?] on ‘My Imaginary Friend’, one of the lesser efforts that is saved by its ending, similar to an outtake of the (original) ‘Alfie’ theme.
The current single ‘Come Home Billy Bird’ [that criminally only charted at # 25] picks up tempo and proves that is not all so serious, melancholic and downbeat in this artist’s realm. Later on we get echoes of musicals, string washes, attack of the mellow chords and catchy passages to make you choke of your artichoke. Correctemundo - The Divine Comedy is acquired taste in the epoch of, to borrow one song’s title - ‘The Wreck Of The Beautiful’.
Neil Hannon, disguised as The Divine Comedy or not, has turned into one of the finest Brit chroniclers of the times and its strives. Very finely tuned and elegantly brooding about this manic lucidity we call life. ‘Absent Friends’ tells the tales of common people and their dealings with everyday life. “Most of the songs use stories and characters as a framework for the loose theme of coming, going and not being quite sure where you want to be”, the mainman explans. ‘My Imaginary Friend’ or ‘The Happy Goth’ - is that the question?
This is music that almost requires you to wear smoking jacket and sport a bow-tie. [Our dickie is purple velvet - cool, eh?] At the time when the pop’s main thoroughfare is no more than the Comatose Avenue of average sickness but all the (out)rage, this is not dinner-party background music and a way above you habitual downloader. ‘Absent Friends’ is a sonic equivalent to a roman à clef.
Whilst pop music in general is like a profound discussion of the finer points of profanities, this one is to long distance bonds and lonesome marathon we run individually.
Neil Hannon can still slice a hot-cross bun into perfect halves.
8/10
*
Live dates (with a 16 piece ensemble):
25 April - Royal Court, Liverpool
26 April - Palladium, London
27 April - Usher, Edinburgh
29 April - Grand Rex, Paris
02 May - Gaiety, Dublin
SaschaS
29-3-2004
The Divine Comedy album ‘Absent Friends’ is released 29 March 2004 on Parlophone
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