Timewatching: The Divine Comedy Album-by-album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by LivingForever, Nov 5, 2020.

  1. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Thanks for all this background on Assume the Goldsmith, @drykid, I'd only listened to it once and hadn't given a thought to what the words were, but will have to listen again now (and to the earlier song as well). Its interesting that the two lyrics are polar opposites! Wonder whether that was a complete coincidence or if Neil was/is aware of it...
    I had never expected Assume The Perpendicular to raise so much discussion! Actually I've been surprised by this whole album because I'd had labelled it as frivolous in my head. Its turned out to be more interesting than I'd expected, and it's fun to have these discussions! :D
    I look forward to the socio-political discussions around Can You Stand Upon One Leg ;)
     
  2. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Although didn't he effectively write both albums before recording Liberation? So could conceivably have made the Goldsmith demo before finalising the Bontempi version of Europe?
     
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  3. TheLemmingFace

    TheLemmingFace Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I can’t confirm 100%, not having bought them, but I believe (from memory of the press release and from looking at them in shops) that they are all identical to the box set versions with the exception of Foreverland and Office Politics. The tell is that the latter two have got different bonus discs to the box set versions.
     
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  4. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    It's a shame really that he's playing two albums at a time on the career-spanning tour next year (postponed from last year.) If he'd done one per gig then he would've had time to have some fun with picking out more obscure b-sides and unreleased songs like this and giving them the same treatment as the album songs themselves. But with two albums per night I guess people will just get to hear the songs from each album and nothing else. Then again my approach would've been twice as expensive for people who wanted to go to every gig!

    Well assuming that Assume The Perpendicular was on BGTK as before, and he then - hypothetically - played the alternate version live for a joke, people would've most likely assumed he was referring to recycling the chords from "Assume The Perpendicular" itself and not "Assume The Goldsmith" and / or "October." So it would've seemed to make sense to them in that scenario. As to what he was actually referring to at the time he wrote it, it's anyone's guess frankly as it could've been any of them.
     
  5. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    I haven't bought them either but it appears they are the same as this is what it says about the 2 disc Liberation CD on the DC store webpage (and would presume the others are the same) :):
    "The CD release consists of 2 discs: the original remastered album, with a second CD of b-sides, demos and alternate versions lovingly curated by Neil Hannon, much of which has never been heard before. The CD comes with a booklet of photos, credits and extensive liner notes written by Neil covering the context and inspiration behind the album and its songs."

    Liberation (Remastered) on The Divine Comedy Official Online Store
     
  6. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    And twice as many songs to rehearse and lyrics to forget... ;)
     
  7. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    Funnily enough this reminds me of the only time I've ever spoken to Neil :) It was at a signing for BGTK and since he was signing for me a copy that had the bonus disc with the French songs on - and also because I couldn't think what else to say! - I mentioned to him that I was at both Paris gigs and wondered if he'd consider doing something like that again. He said that it took so long to rehearse it all first time around that he had absolutely no intention of ever doing it again :) Although "Assume The Goldsmith" is in English not French (and repeats the same verse twice) so that's a lot easier to learn at least!
     
  8. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Absolutely correct - so I would imagine many “Prom-era” demos existed before Liberation was recorded!
     
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  9. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I could imagine Neil singing b-sides, obscurities and completed out-takes live, but never works-in-progress such as "Assume the Goldsmith".

    P.S. apologies for posting the wrong Goldsmith poem yesterday.
     
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  10. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Presumably he was just referring to the fact that this was his third attempt at finishing this song - a little in joke between him and the 5 people who had the “October” EP? :D
     
  11. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    A bit pushed for time this morning so I’ll come back for scores later - but for now:

    Today’s song is:

    The Lost Art of Conversation

    And if there was ever a song which was about exactly what it says in the title, here it is.

     
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  12. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Very interesting alternate version today- from the 2020 boxset, here’s

    What’s Wrong With You?

    An early version of the same music, but with a different arrangement and very different lyrics!

     
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  13. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    And because we’ve not had one for a while, here’s a @drykid live video of the solo piano version, live in Brussels in September 2010:

     
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  14. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    Haha did you play this one? If Neil's un-professionalism on BGTK at Rough Trade shocked you then I'm not sure what you'll think of this :D
     
  15. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Erm… no. No I did not :D
     
  16. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Ok- now I have, and apart from (or maybe because of?) the hilarious expletive-laden breakdown, I thought it was great!

    I’m always amazed on this tour at how he managed to play piano (including some reasonably complex parts), remember most of the words, and chat to the audience, all whilst knocking back bottles of wine…
     
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  17. Vagabone

    Vagabone Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    The Lost Art of Conversation

    Again, a nice tune but the lyrics annoy me. It's so easy to write a list song when there are no parameters and you can rhyme whatever you like. The word ending "-ation" is famously easy to rhyme. I don't find the juxtaposition of unrelated things as funny as I'm supposed to.

    Maybe I should focus more on the music.But I don't think even with great lyrics I'd rate the tune that highly. It's more of that light, breezy, easy pop that I think there's a bit too much of on this album.

    Another day I might be more generous . (I honestly sometimes wonder if I have this album all wrong and all the tracks are works of genius!) But today I can't find it in me to spare it more than 2/5.
     
  18. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Alright, before anyone harshes my mellow this morning - I’m going first:

    I love this song. It’s the best of the “funny”/“jolly” songs on the album to me. That rollicking piano part. The clever lyric. The countless torturous rhymes for “conversation”…

    It’s probably deceptively hard to write a song that sounds like you just knocked it out in 10 minutes like this one somehow does. But it just puts a big smile on my face!

    4.5
     
  19. christian42

    christian42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lund, Sweden
    The Lost Art of Conversation

    Well, hello, Frank Lampard! So this is where you're hiding. Another winning song that continues the humorous streak from its predecessor. Jaunty and jolly, belying a subject that's actually rather important. Being the pop kid I am, I have no problem with this type of track.

    The early alternative version is interesting as it continues to show how Neil often begins with synthpop inspired things before re-arranging them into the TDC music we're most accustomed to. For my tastes, it's a bit too sparse compared with the finished result, and the lyrics could do with some fixing - they're quite repetitive at times. Which I guess they got with the final version of the track...

    4.0
     
  20. paletro

    paletro Forum Resident

    Location:
    paris
    I found two bonus discs of Forever Land in my box and not the original album. Of course I can't send it back today. Venus is sold out.
     
  21. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    It's worth contacting them anyway, they may have spare copies put aside for just this reason. If that fails then I suppose you could buy the re-issued individual Foreverland CD as the discs themselves would be identical I assume? (Although I can't confirm this personally...)
     
  22. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    The Lost Art Of Conversation
    I'd pre-written notes for the remainder of the album, so was convinced today's song was Island Life...! Perhaps this shows how much I conflate Assume the Perpendicular with The Lost Art...
    I quite enjoy the way it bounces along.
    But there's a theme here... again I like the idea but just don't like the finished article. It feels trite and silly. Its well done, and probably another example of excellent song craft, but it does nothing for me but make me cringe.
    I like the instrumental version of this actually, so really its the lyrics that just don't appeal.
    It's just another list of random stuff, so he could have chosen almost anything to fit the rhyme scheme - the fact it's supposed to be 'hilariously' random only makes it easier. The men in white coats line irritates me as its such a cliche, and the 'comrade' verse annoys me.
    Points for referencing Joan Miro.
    Incidentally, I've always heard 'Frank Lampard' as 'Franklin Parks' who sounds like a terribly highbrow American politician or an architect I hadn't heard of!
    Score 2/5
    For the music alone I would give it 3.5/5
     
  23. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Oh no! How annoying.
    I have no helpful suggestions, but if you're unable to resolve this with the store I have somehow ended up with 2 spare CD copies of Foreverland (barely or never played) so would happily post one to you (for nothing, I just want to get rid of them!). Just drop me a PM if you'd like :)
     
  24. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Ah you'd already said it!
    Oh dear, I'm becoming a Divine Comedy nerd... :help:
    It's nice that, with many of the videos of these solo piano shows, you can guess which order the songs were played by looking at Neil's bottle of wine.
    Just watched it - funny screw up! Also, possibly a prize for most glissandos in a song?
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2021
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  25. jon-senior

    jon-senior Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastleigh
    The Lost Art Of Conversation

    I think this is a step down from the objective (? yeah, I know) quality of yesterday's track, but today's song is still tremendously enjoyable.

    Personally, I'm a big fan of the list choruses. Maybe they were easier to write than most songs, but there are some excellent touches in them (my favourites: Good Vibrations... Van Dyke Parks and Transubstantiation, Bram Stoker's Creation), and I think they work as a little microcosm of Neil's lyric writing - not many people would reference Frank Lampard and Francis Bacon on the same track. Having said that, the rest of the words aren't among his best. Verse 1 is fine, but the second and third verses feel a bit thrown together.

    The arrangement has that knack of feeling thrown together while actually being very carefully constructed. The piano line is the star here, and it has a wonderful rolling very-slightly-off-beat feel which is hugely appealing to me, and the vocal harmonies are excellent. It's one of those songs where it's actually very hard to pick out a main melody all the way through. During the choruses in particular, you really need both parts of the harmony for it to sound right, which is - perhaps - why this wasn't performed live as often as many on the album? Very effective in its context though.

    What's Wrong With You is less appealing both in style and lyrical content, personally, though I find it very interesting that he jettisoned the entire lyric apart from the line about the men in white coats. Once again, I'd love to know the process that lead from one to the other.

    Anyway, another very strong track, so a 4/5 from me.
     

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