Mastermind has always struck me as the heart of Regeneration - not quite in the centre, but something the album seems to build up to. It is quite lovely - a strong melody with some nice variations throughout, a fuss-free but effect arranegement, again with some nice variations especially in the third verse, and a well delivered vocal performance. Lyrically, there are some good lines - unlike @The Turning Year, I really like "every nose is a vacuum cleaner in the loved up London arena" - but in hindsight, it feels a bit scrappy. Put all the interesting couplets together, and I'm not sure it means very much. You can spot enough themes resurfacing from elsewhere on the album for the song to get away with it, but in isolation, I'm really not sure what he's trying to say. Maybe it's quite profound, maybe it isn't. Still, having complained about yesterday's lyrics lacking subtlety, I should probably be a bit more forgiving today! 3.5/5 today.
Rehearsal version is a terrible arrangement. Perhaps it wouldn't seem it if we had nothing to compare it too, but is suspect that's unlikely.
I'm very fond of this one - although I think that musically it isn't the best track on the album, the central message of the song as summed up in the final chorus (at least, what I take to be the central message) means a lot to me: So tell me what the hell is normal and who the hell is sane? And why the hell care anyway? All the dreams that we have had are gonna prove that we're all mad and that's okay I spent a long time trying to be happy with who I am, and to come to terms with the fact that I was almost-certainly autistic and therefore would never quite be able to meet societies norms, and would always come across as a little eccentric and strange to others..... and even longer to get the confidence to pursue an official diagnosis, fearing as I did that I would be told I was *not* autistic and that there was merely something indefinably broken about me. Long before this journey would come to an end - or rather, a satisfying conclusion given the fact that even now it's an ongoing process with occasional setbacks and leaps forward! - one of the first things to start the ball rolling was my membership of the Scissor Sisters forum community I spoke of recently. It's a lot easier to feel comfortable in one's skin when surrounded by people of many different races, nationalities, sexualities, gender identities and so forth, all united by a message of being true to oneself and "letting your freak flag fly"! As such, even though this song is a million miles from anything produced by said band, it strikes a massive chord for me - such that the music, the vocals, the fact it's a bit dreary..... none of that matters. The only reason it doesn't get a perfect score is that (as someone with a very weak chest and hence great dislike of the concept of smoking) the line about cigarettes snaps me out of things a little.... I don't mind mentions of smoking in music generally speaking, but if I otherwise strongly identify with a song I don't like it. 4.5/5 I'll be honest.... I really really like it with a little polishing up it might have broken up the dreariness of the album as a whole nicely, whilst retaining the meaningful lyrical content. I prefer the album version, because I know it so well, but I *could* have preferred this one.
I can see why this is getting high scores, but sorry, still can't get into it. It's a pretty melody. 2/5
Weirdly, I’ve just seen an ad from the producers of “Mastermind”, the BBC TV quiz show, inviting people to apply for the new series. I’ve just emailed for an application pack... any ideas what my specialist subject could be?
As for the song... Mastermind I know it’s a pretty tune, with “meaningful” lyrics, which are done justice by the “serious” arrangement, but.... ... wouldn’t it be much more fun to have the “country” version at this stage in the album? Liven things up a bit? Still, that would have been a very “old Neil” thing to do, so I see why it was outlawed. As it is, I can’t mark the song down for its album positioning so I will judge it out of context and it’s something that I enjoy, and that I know is one of Neil’s “great” songs, but it just falls a bit short of brilliance to me. It’s just a *tiny* bit slow and ponderous, (and the 2001 live versions are even slower), and some of the lyrics don’t quite hit for me (yep, the same line as everyone else), but otherwise, it’s a good one. 4/5
Mastermind Not only do I agree with @James Cunningham that this is the album highlight, this is also a top 3 Divine Comedy song for me. Great vocal, wonderful chords tied together by a perfect melody, terrific string arrangement. To me it's like a great lost Jimmy Webb song. Though the lyrics never get as surreal as Webb's, the tune brings about the melancholic mood of a song like Wichita Lineman. I can hear it on the soundtrack of a slow moving 70s flick, underpinning the emotional crux of the movie's final scene. Even though this song is a step in a new direction (like most of the album), the band sounds completely comfortable playing it (unlike some of the album). It tones down the goofier tendencies of Neil's writing (which I still enjoy on a lot of songs), but still sounds perfectly at home in his catalogue. Extraneous tape noises are not the only way to grow up. Only critical thing I can say is that while the lyrics are pretty good, not all lines match the emotional impact of the music. I'm actually a little shocked to read that quote where Neil calls it his favorite on the album. He doesn't seem to have treated it as a favorite. I've seen the band 6 or 7 times and I've never heard it played. And it doesn't seem to get talked about much. I will say that this is the one song I've played for my friends that are not DC-fans (that would be most of them sadly) that gets any traction. If Nigel is the one who convinced Neil that the sped-up country version of Mastermind was a bad idea, and that the song needed to be slowed down to find it's heft, then getting him to produce was worth it just for that. Maybe. 5/5
Mastermind This is the highlight of the album for me. I love this song and used to put it on a few mixtapes back then. It’s a good song to lure regular indie pop/rock fans into the Wonderful World of Neil Hannon. Haven’t given the lyrics that much thought as usual, but the bit that @A Tea-Loving Dave posted is really rather good and the ”You don't need an indie song to figure out what's going on” line did get some attention on those mixtapes. Well, once at least. Surely the ”country” version is performed that way for a lark? It’s fun once or twice, but the album version is where it’s at and it’s definitely one of my favourite TDC songs. 5/5
Mastermind Certainly the highlight of side 2, if not the whole album. Lovely acoustic opening, but the song shines for me in the piano and Neil's vocal performance, especially hitting the final "and that's okaaaay..." just right, with the underlying piano line to support it. While the theme isn't resonating with me much, the imagery in some of the verses provides satisfying emotional impact: "every heart comes apart at the seams", the weeping girls and boys, and the "tell me you feel this too" and "tell me that I'm normal" pleas. 4.75/5
Your mileage may vary on that one, of course there are plenty of lyrically-downbeat-but-musically-upbeat country songs, after all!
Mastermind Quite. I also take this to be the message of the song, and it's a strong one. And it goes very well with the music. They go together so well that it's hard to tell where the beauty and poignancy is really coming from. Though I said "Lost Property" was my favourite song on the album, this comes close, and there are times I think it really is the better song. Whereas "Lost Property"'s qualities are quirky, mysterious and hard to pin down, "Mastermind" has far more traditional songwriterly qualities. I agree with others who have said it's the heart of the album, the song that most readily comes to mind when I think of the album. I don't think the country version works as well but if it had been all I ever knew I can imagine getting to love it in that form instead. 5/5
I genuinely don’t think so, I genuinely think they were planning on having it sound like that at one point...
"Mastermind": In past efforts to appreciate this record, I’d given up by this point, and as a consequence I had virtually no memory of what the last three tracks even sounded like anymore going into this thread. Upon bringing today's track up, I thought, ‘oh yeah, this.’ Another five minute plus plodder, this one isn’t so bad. As a total random aside, the line about cocaine in London reminds me of a Q magazine cover where Damon Albarn is quoted saying "there's a blizzard of cocaine and I hate it!" In any event, the arrangement indicates a choice of downers instead of coke. But again: slow. Takes forever to get anywhere. I'd rather have the rehearsal version, if only for the kick in the pants it would give this musical sedative of an album. 2/5
Mastermind I’m genuinely surprised. Whilst I have normally lost attention by now, I have listened to this a few times today on the strength of the votes given. No matter how many times I listen I just can’t see how this rates so highly. 2.4/5
I'll give people a little time to catch up on "Mastermind" since I was late yesterday, but for now, on to today's song, which is: Regeneration People, we are already at the penultimate song of the album! (I sense several people breathing a sigh of relief...) I hesitate to use the word "rock" since I was roundly mocked for it last time, but it's one of the album's.... louder(?) songs at least Information on this song is somewhat hard to come by. It's not mentioned in the 2020 sleevenotes, and all Neil has to say about it in the 2001 album runthrough in Newcomer magazine is: "I told you I didn't want to talk about this song... Listeners will work it out. Musically, it's the most complicated one on the album: it took us a crazy long time to write it." Ashortsite helpfully points out some of the pesky literary references which creep into this song when you're not looking: Here's the song:
And its only other official release is this rather nice solo acoustic rendition from a French sampler CD - recorded for the French radio station Oui FM in February 2001. It's a bit of a different spin on the track, anyway!
Regeneration This is a song that I think less fondly of until it comes on. I know there have been a few Radiohead comparisons from people already about other songs on the album, but this is the only one where I see a direct nod- apart from the Godrich production throughout of course. I like the way the song builds with those insistent chords, it really does sound like a release when Neil gets there. The acoustic version is absoloutely wonderful as well. 4.25/5
Regeneration When someone mentions this album, I never even remember that there is actually a title track on it. This, to me, is the definition of unmemorable. So it was with fresh ears that I heard it today. Though I can't say that I remember ever hearing it before even now as I'm listening to it... This time I will, however, agree that it IS a rock track. Unfortunately, it doesn't really do much for me this time either. The distorted guitar is cool when it comes in for the middle bit and the ending, but there is nothing in the melody that hooks me and the track just sort of meanders along. 3.2
