I know what you’re thinking : “Jesus ‘droid man, this site is for serious head music not indie chart fodder” and not long ago I would’ve agreed with you when considering The Divine Comedy. I was never quite at home with Neil Hannon’s throwaway Noel Cowardesque dandyisms. all a bit fey and affected. But somewhere along the line he decided to drop the persona and get real, no …more than that he decided to come clean. What follows as a result is an album of naked honesty and a bared soul that must have been aching to do so for so long and the results are quite astonishing.
Lyrically straightfaced and upfront it voices opinions; concerns; home truths and optimistic stances in an increasingly cynical world. Tracks like “Dumb It Down” -
“…your concentration span’s too long/ it’s longer than this song/ that’s not allowed…”
“Mastermind” — “…every nose is a vacuum cleaner/in the loved ‑up London arena…”
and “Perfect lovesong” — “…like heavyweights in the final round/we’ll hold onto each other /so we don’t fall down…”
tell it like it is, was and ever shall be.
Predictably, reviews of Hannon’s new found frankness bordered between lukewarm and scathing and effectively buried the lovable (and safe) character the mainstream press had previously fawned over. Comparisons with Diana are inescapable…