Timewatching: The Divine Comedy Album-by-album thread

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

  1. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    No hurry as far as I'm concerned. I need to go back and review some of the earlier albums that were covered before I joined the thread anyway :)
     
    LivingForever likes this.
  2. Dalav

    Dalav Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Perfectly fine. All the best!
     
  3. jon-senior

    jon-senior Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastleigh
    I remember the gap between Bang Goes The Knighthood and Foreverland feeling like it went on for ages, so a break here feels appropriate, at least. All the best in the busyness, and looking forward to the next step when it arrives.
     
    LivingForever likes this.
  4. christian42

    christian42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lund, Sweden
    No worries. There'll be some TDC withdrawal, but I've been on a Beach Boys kick this last week anyway so I'm fine. ;)
     
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  5. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    I wondered if you would pop in - although I was kind of hoping it would happen while we were discussing the album so you could set us straight on the nonsense we were spouting! :D

    Hopefully our frank opinions on songs we did and didn’t like weren’t too offensive - and I think there have been very very few songs on this thread that nobody at all enjoyed!
     
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  6. robbroncs

    robbroncs Forum Disgrace

    Location:
    NJ
    i can firmly state that Foreverland is in my top 3 TDC lps. i simply adore this record. and am looking forward to your thoughts
     
  7. BryanS

    BryanS Forum Resident

    Back in 2016 when Foreverland was released - I posted this on anther tread here. I wonder will I still feel the same when we go through it?


    I'm still waiting for my ( hopefully ) signed Vinyl copy to arrive, so I have this album on repeat on Spotify until it does. I'd heard the single "Catherine the Great" and to be honest I was worried!! But I should have known better - Neil's choice of lead singles has been brutal for a long time - Billy Bird, Indie Disco etc have not represented their respective albums well - but somehow they fit perfectly when the listening to the album as a whole. The same applies here.

    So anyway - these are my impressions of the album, track by track.

    Napoleon Complex
    Great opening track. Beautiful arrangement. I love the "Child Catcher" line. I think it's appropriate that the first voice we hear on this album is Cathy Davy. The whole album is an outpouring of love from Neil to Cathy and it's gorgeous. He's obviously met his soul mate and I'm delighted for him.

    Foreverland
    Nice tune. Anytime Neil drops in the piano accordion is fine by me - "Commuter love" from "Fin de Siecle" is my all time favourite DC song.

    Catherine the Great
    Like all of this album, the production, arrangement and playing is sublime. Intelligent, funny lyrics - I've grown to love this song after a shaky start. Who else uses harpsichord and tubular bells these days.

    Funny Peculiar
    Neil and Cathy here again. A short quirky little love song that works perfectly. At 0.45 seconds in Neil suggests that "your are the one yeah? And she replies 'yeah' " it's so simple, natural, touching and genuine.

    The Pact
    More accordions and lush strings - love it.

    To the Rescue
    A Duckworth-Lewis-y feel to this track, which is no bad thing. A real grower this one. Lovely arrangement again, with a beautiful trumpet solo. Wonderful stuff.

    How can you leave me on my own.
    This is playful witty Neil at his best. I think every man can relate to this one - it's spot on.

    I Joined the Foreign Legion (to forget)
    Not my favourite track - but it's okay. Neil going through the motions a bit I feel.

    My Happy Place
    Another love song to Cathy - but this time tinged with a little bit of self doubt. Nice song.

    A desperate man
    I love this one. Pure fantasy. It reminds me of "The Race" by Yello. Nobody is putting this attention detail into their music right now. Huge arrangement - magnificent.

    Other People
    Neil musing about how much of life is made up of chance. It's lovely and sweet - and just before it becomes too sentimental he just ends it. So Neil!

    The One who Loves You
    This should be sickly and sentimental - but it works perfectly. A love song for orchestra and banjo. It rounds off the album perfectly. Neil Hannon sounds like one happy man and more power to him. Please, please, please don't wait six years for the next DC album.

    6 stars out of 5 - wonderful.
     
  8. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    That’s great! Let’s see which songs you like more or less 5 years on :)
     
  9. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    One thing I noticed listening to the album through yesterday when I thought we were about to start…

    There’s a lot of banjo on it! I wonder how that’ll go down with some of our regulars … ;)
     
  10. ericthegardener

    ericthegardener Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Count me on Team Banjo!
     
  11. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Count me on the opposing team... :p although on this album I surprisingly don't mind it (two songs aside...) :D;)
     
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  12. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Hello Mr Duckworth, it was nice of you to drop by the other day. I think I might be the person you were answering there, so thank you for clarifying that. And what a lovely melody it is. :) All the best to you, and thanks for the music :targettiphat:
     
    DELLOTRON likes this.
  13. DELLOTRON

    DELLOTRON Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    Thanks everyone. Just to clear up another thing about the 'Line and Length' video. Neil and myself went to meet students at UCD College in Dublin who wanted to make us a video as a project for their film makers/graphic artists.

    They did it all for free and it was incredibly time consuming and labour intensive. They did a great job for students. Two people came to film us in Neil's studio in Rathmines, Dublin, at the time, to use the footage to line draw us into the video. That's when you see Neil come to life as it were at the end of the video.

    Also we did a really fun 12" dub remix of the track as a possible white label vinyl release. Actually I say "did" but Lewis got bored of it around the 9 minute mark so it was just left dangling. It'll be fun to finish one day.

    I'll get around to reading about the debut here soon.

    Cheers.
     
  14. BryanS

    BryanS Forum Resident

    I, for one, would love to hear 9+ minutes of 'Line and Length'
     
  15. drykid

    drykid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hereford, UK
    It's good to have my suspicions confirmed about the Line and Length video (my gut feeling was that it was worked on by a whole team, just because of the sheer amount of different techniques; traditional animation, stop frame, computer graphics etc.) I'm still a bit confused why it sneaked out on youtube the way it did rather than being part of some official announcement by the band, but maybe that's in part down to the vinyl remix of the song that was supposed to happen but never did. Anyway hats off to the students at UCD for doing such a great job :)

    Put me down for a copy of the white label anyway! :)
     
    LivingForever likes this.
  16. DELLOTRON

    DELLOTRON Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    We just gave them permission to post it so it didn't leak out really. They contacted us about working on that track. They wanted to test their skills on that particular song. So it was never considered as a single and the remix was just for fun. There was never anything official planned for 'Line and Length'. Our radio plugger wanted to chop the whole middle section out of 'Third Man' for radio but we just thought bollox to that.
     
  17. The Bad Ambassadors

    The Bad Ambassadors Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Cardiff
    I'm a bit late to the party but can I just say what an amazing discovery this thread has been! I wish I had discovered it sooner but nevertheless I'm streaming through it all now, slowly. I run (the world's only?) TDC tribute band and this thread has been amazing for helping me particularly with instrumentation. Hearing every instrument's role in every track is almost impossible but you guys have unearthed interviews and early demos where things are mentioned that I never heard, and suddenly I am hearing them in the tracks which I then get the Bad Ambassadors to play and we sound slightly closer.

    There is one thing I can't ever hear clearly enough however and hoping you can all help. In 'Tonight We Fly' the backing vocals sing 'over the friends we've known, over the [inaudible], we'll fly over the fathers...' etc... anybody know what the missing word is?? Maybe there's a 'h' at the start??

    Here's our YouTube for a shameless plug if anyone is interested, we do it for love not money!! The Bad Ambassadors: A Divine Tribute Band - YouTube
     
  18. lazzaa

    lazzaa Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Welcome to the thread! Its "over their homes", I'm pretty certain.
     
  19. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Welcome!

    That’s very cool- great to see “Commuter Love” being given some… love!

    I’d definitely get along to a gig if you were playing near London any time (not sure where you’re based!)
     
  20. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Not sure but it looks like Thomas Walsh has been modelling for artwork in this Swedish hospital…

    @DELLOTRON ? :D

    [​IMG]
     
  21. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic Thread Starter

    Ok, so my reference to a Swedish hospital above may give a clue as to why, but I am going to have to keep this thread on ice for a little longer than intended. (No need to worry, nobody is too seriously ill :))

    I will make sure people are informed when we get going again, in the meantime feel free to discuss whatever you like about TDC up to this point!
     
  22. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    I hope everyone is ok

    That's not a problem in the slightest.

    I'm actually enjoying giving DC a rest for the minute - who knew there was other music out there?! :laugh: Been discovering 1920s Texas blues, which seems pretty far removed, but one song by an artist called 'Ragtime Texas' begins in an oddly similar way to Songs of Love, and a lot of his songs feature what sound like recorder solos... There is no escape...! ;):nyah:
     
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  23. DaniMoonstar

    DaniMoonstar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Staffordshire
    Hey, anyone see Only Connect last night? There was a nanosecond clip of ‘Generation sex.’ Back to tumbleweed now…
     
  24. jon-senior

    jon-senior Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastleigh
  25. The Turning Year

    The Turning Year Lowering average scores since 2021

    Location:
    London, UK
    Thanks for sharing that! I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, Willy Wonka does not need a back story. Yet, on the other hand, it's great that Neil is writing for a big film, and with that cast involved it's bound to be going places, and I'm sure he'll do/has done a fabulous job with the songs.
    But on a third hand, Willy Wonka really doesn't need a back story...

    And thanks for this too...! :D
     

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