Olivia, New Tron Song I forgot to rate this. Since I prefer it to "Death And The Mellotron", which I gave a 1.5, this one gets a 2. Large Mellotron Collider It's the most boring/annoying of the Mellotron lot, so I'll give it a 1. I agree it's the best one, and your comparison is fitting, too. I'd say it's more DM than PSB, though. However, I remember round the time of Super (or Subpar as I like to call it), there was talk of them releasing a dark techno album next, but unfortunately it never surfaced apart from a couple of B-sides such as "The Dead Can Dance". I would have loved more of that, and "The Berlin Airlift" certainly has got that darker vibe. Nordyland 83 Thanks for this, that makes sense, and a Nord Lead is actually mentioned in "The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale". I haven't seen Deutschland 83 yet so I didn't think of it, but that must surely be part of the pun. Anyway, another fun instrumental to slot nicely inbetween the final two tracks on Office Politics: 3.5. Pop Muzik Seconded. 3.5 The 'la la la' bit might be an acquired taste, but it's one piece of the puzzle that makes this a classic track. I agree with you that it might have been more interesting to synthify songs that don't fall into the synth pop category. That would have made me consider inserting them into the album at the point of the office party. Yes, it's the same with "Just Can't Get Enough". Turning Japanese I'd never heard of this song before. It certainly wasn't as ubiquitous as "Pop Muzik" and sounds quite different to Neil's cover, which is why I post the original song here: It's a good song, but I applaud that Neil has actually synthified it for a change, and the more experimental arrangement and sounds make it a better fit for the Office Politics era than his covers of M and Depeche Mode. However, it's the first (and hopefully last) time he's used generic trance stabs during the chorus, which brings my score down to 3.5. I see you've inserted this before "A Feather In Your Cap" as I have. Is it just a setlist style abbreviation of the title (as you couldn't be bothered to write the whole thing down) or is it your new title for your version of the album? I'm still thinking about which character to replace Andrea Palladio with (in line with other songs mentioning the names of characters), but not including any name leaves it up to interpretation who the character is. Going by the title, I wouldn't put this last as the break comes before the working day is done. Unless you're suggesting that it's only a short break before the next gruelling working day arrives? I'm not surprised to see the most experimental tracks at the bottom of the album but shocked at how low they've ended up overall. As I argued previously, I don't think "Philip and Steve..." belongs to the two most experimental tracks for a similar reason. That said, I'm surprised it came out at the top spot as it's still the third-most experimental track. Also, it's nice to see "Absolutely Obsolete" among the top three. That is a bit strange. For someone who loves this album, you seem to have been a bit stingy with the scores. Or you've managed to ignore the tracks that you aren't too fond of, and your love is really more for a shorter, single album version? Your girlfriend had the same reaction I had.
Accidental, to be honest - I'd abbreviated the title on my list and forgotten to re-expand it before typing. The idea of putting it there was stolen from you in the first place, I think. Reworking the name makes sense, but I hadn't given it a lot of thought. It ended up here because I wanted it somewhere and I couldn't find anywhere better. But, it's a synth heavy album, especially with all those additions, and I liked the idea of giving the machines the final word. Your "unless" idea actually gives it another justification which I rather like (and which absolutely fits the theme).
The Music Hall gig was on YouTube for a while, which is easy to extract audio from, but I didn't get it in time. I hoped you might have the other one
Maybe I should do this too as missed the beginning of it. (I say 'should' in the loosest sense as there are many things I 'should' be doing and this is really not one of them!) I'd be interested in hearing a quieter solo (as in Neil plays everything) album, but am less interested in a covers album. I like his covers, but there are already plenty out there to put together a compilation from I've seen a small clip of this, and it's a Suzuki omnochord. Would also love to hear more of that as it sounded lovely and I missed it at the time. Hehe! I think it's both! I'm definitely pretty stingy with giving out 5s compared with some others here, and like to use the full range of my chosen 0-5 scorecard, which makes it more fun, but brings my overall score down a lot! When I'm listening to the album I find it very easy to just filter out what I don't like, as I really like the overall idea of it, the plethora of styles, and the whole feel of it. I probably like it as much because it feels like the reset button has been hit on Neil's career. I'd pretty much lost interest, and if he'd gone from Foreverland to The Best Mistakes and best of album or another album of 'TDC-sounding' songs, I certainly wouldn't have bought the box set or joined this discussion. And I wouldn't have gone back and found that Foreverland really is quite good! I was interested to see your album ranking and will have to see what mine is based on scores, but I bet it's completely different to the way I would rank the albums from scratch! Think I would order them like this: Promenade Casanova Liberation Office Politics Fin de Siecle Bang Goes The Knighthood A Short Album About Love Victory For The Comic Muse Foreverland Regeneration Absent Friends (I don't think Regen is bad at all, it just doesn't cross my mind when I think of TDC albums and I never get an urge to hear it). As I'm very much an 'album person', and listen to music generally in album form from start to finish, I think for me my album ranking reflects how I feel about them more than the aggrgate song by song ranking might do, but I will be interested to see it.
I may be able to put the Koln gig on YouTube again at some point, in which case that will probably help you!
I came across this excerpt of Es ist doch nur Musik (a roundtable discussion of new releases) reviewing Office Politics: For those not familiar with German: the first guy, who has to leave early, gives it 4/5 (he says he's not a TDC expert but believes some of the older work may have affected him even more). The second reviewer is an old fan but was slightly disappointed by Neil relying too much on the musical/traditional TDC style to the point of it becoming kitsch on the newer albums preceding Foreverland (it's funny he doesn't include that album among them). Therefore, he's very enthusiastic about Office Politics' more playful and experimental direction and gives it 5/5. He mentions "The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale" and "Psychological Evaluation" first (not in line with the forum average here, though I gave them 4 and 4.5 respectively) and concludes that (in line with the average here) "Philip And Steve's Furniture Removal Company" is the best track. The third guy is a bit more reluctant with his praise. He says that what he always loved about TDC is Neil's penchant for telling stories (even if they are about mundane things), citing (though forgetting the title) "Our Mutual Friend" as an example. He believes that the music was always subservient to these stories and feels that this time the stories are subservient to the music, which he likes less. That said, he then goes on to contradict himself by admitting that "The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale" is very funny, and the second guy points out that the whole album has a strong theme/concept reflected by the cover artwork. Despite his misgivings, the third guy still gives it 4/5.
Turning Japanese I am actually a pretty big fan of The Vapors, and it always bums me out that they are mostly remembered as a one-hit-wonder and Turning Japanese as a novelty song, so it pleases me to hear Neil cover them. I like what Neil's done with the song, changing the feel quite a bit even changing a few chords, not just adding strings to it and crooning. I'd love to hear an album, not of cover songs, but songs that had a feel similar to this. Even though it's an electronic cover of an old song it doesn't really feel retro like it easily could have. Mostly not rating these bonus tracks, but I'll give this a 4.5/5 Nordyland '83 Enjoyed this as much as the other instrumental doodles that I haven't listened to a lot yet. Only difference is that I can easily see how vocals could have fitted on this one. Really hope Neil keeps up the experimentation on the next proper DC album.
This goes for me as well. I blame it on mu non-participation in social media, so I haven’t gotten into the habit. There’ve been occasions in this thread when I’ve realised hours after that maybe I should have liked a post.
You can get around that by just liking everything I think I started off being quite discerning, but then went through a period where I realised I was 'liking' posts I didn't particularly like, just because it's easy to hit 'like' and it seemed the friendly thing to do
Large Mellotron Collider Not really my thing. A bit like a bunch of boats in a harbor, all blowing their different horns. 1.5/5 Pop Muzik Prefer the original, which feels fresher and more dynamic. I guess from the moment we heard "shoulda woulda coulda" in Line and Length we could have anticipated this possibility. As we near the end of the catalogue to date, it's a little odd to me that he included this cover in the box set when so many other deserving ones were left off. I suppose this is one that was in the can while others exist only in live versions. 3.1/5 Turning Japanese I have to admit some concern upon learning of the box set inclusion of this, prior to hearing it. But I really like what Neil did with it. Added subtlety and synths and other electronics, putting thought and effort into giving it a life of its own rather than a cover by numbers. The slower tempo gives it more of a pensive feel. Very pleasing. I like the "no sex, no drugs..." section in which Neil drops his voice down--reminds me of his rakish Casanova-era character. Thankfully he was judicious enough to omit the now-cringeworthy "East Asian Riff" that opened The Vapors' version. And what's with the vinyl record static in the background? 4.2/5 Nordyland 83 Light, airy, and enjoyable. Though not much beyond that. 2.9/5
Japanese Very fond of this one. Love his vocals and the music. 4 Nordyland Definitely reached my limit of these things now! 1
Divine Comedy History Lesson, Part 42 “Office Politics” makes number 5 on the UK charts, Neil’s best performance for some time - probably helped by tons of promotional appearances on TV, radio and instores in the preceding weeks. As already posted by @The Turning Year , he records a parody Top of the Pops chart rundown video to celebrate! “Norman and Norma” is released as a single on June 16th, and it fails to trouble the charts, but gets plenty of airplay on radio stations still sympathetic to Neil’s music! (*Tries not to use the words “two” and “radio” in any order*) Perhaps to thank this unnamed radio station for their support, the band turn up on the Zoe Ball breakfast show on the 12th of July, where they play two old hits, their new single- AND this cover of ABBA’s “Lay all Your Love On Me”: The very next day, Neil performs a couple of songs at the Irish Green Party’s conference in Dublin - apparently having become a bit more politically engaged and decided to join the party. I have no idea which two songs he plays, but I’ll bet some of you can come up with some cracking humorous suggestions… CO2-jumper? To be continued…
Turning Japanese The original is something I've been aware of but don't think I've heard in full before, so I had no idea Neil's version is actually quite different, and so it just passed me by as another cover of what I'd wrongly presumed to be a synth pop song. He's definitely taken it several shades darker and turned it into something quite interesting, and the choice of sounds/instruments is really effective. Dropping that awful stereotypical riff (everybody was kung fu fighting...) was very wise. I really like the gong and percussive riff that he's replaced it with. (Perhaps that riff is a sample, which might explain the static/white noise sound that seems to build up towards the end...?). As someone else mentioned, his vocal is really effective here, particularly the way he delivers the 'no sex no drugs...' part in a low, slightly sinister voice. In the original that bit sounds like a total joke, but Neil makes it into something quite dark and lonely. 4/5 Incidentally, when I started searching for 'Japanese' in my phone's media player, Neil's piano cover of Ghosts by Japan played afterwards. I'd forgotten how much I liked that - gave me shivers!
You asked for it - I'm sure these will be as 'hilarious' as the alternative Booklovers list CO2 Jumper is ace by the way And not to forget Neil's other band The Sustainability Assessment Method, of course. Some titles arguably need no amendment, for example: Here Comes The Flood Rain Stops Play Island Life Geronimo When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe And some hilarious(ly weak) puns: Death Of A Climate-activist EuroCOP The Pop Singer's Fear Of The PM10 Count Green Of The South The Treehuggers A Sea Level Song Becoming More Like Al Gore NO2 In Paris And London If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Methane) IPCC's All You Need Searise Snowball In Summertime I Joined Extinction Rebellion (To Forget) A Feather In Your COP Philip And Steve's Fossil Fuel Reduction Policy 'Sustainability' Knox The End Of The Ozone My guess would be that Neil has always been fairly political but has only recently nailed his colours to the mast publicly (Green Party, Extinction Rebellion and recent pig export protest). He has certainly dropped plenty of hints over the years (most of Fanfare..., Mororway To Damascus, Count Grassi etc.).
Are you just trying to spin the thread out to make sure we hit 10,000 posts by the time we've finished the last couple of songs? Bravo, if so.
Divine Comedy History Lesson, Part 43 Neil takes the summer of 2019 off, ahead of rehearsals for the Office Politics tour starting in September. In fact, fresh out of these rehearsals, the band head to Paris to record the special for French TV on September 24th, making this basically the first date of the tour. If you haven't already watched this on any of the 27 times I posted it previously, I heartily recommend it, being a complete live performance of the Office Politics album live in the studio. The tour proper kicks off on the 6th of October - and although the setlist order gets played about with a bit on the first few dates, right from the start there's almost a narrative to the gig. I think when I saw the London date on October the 17th, I remarked that it was the first "concept gig" I'd ever seen - with the songs in a way arranged to tell a story, with the stage set of the "Office" gradually changing (e.g. a roadie coming on to change the clocks every so often to simulate the passing of the working day), and eventually with the set being carted off during "Philip and Steve's Furniture Removal Company".) The London setlist followed a sort of working day narrative, at least after the first couple of "getting everybody going" tracks of "Europop" and "Queuejumper"... "Commuter Love" was early in the set, followed by lots of the "Office"-based material, with "Come Home Billy Bird" in the midst reminding us of that character's beginnings. Then there was the sequence from the album of "Infernal Machines / You'll Never Work / I'm a Stranger Here" charting a sort of downward curve into a bleak future - before Neil announced that it was time for the "Office Party" with some hits like "Indie Disco", "National Express" and ending up with "Life and Soul of the Party". The album sequence then continued with "Feather in Your Cap" being almost acted out as if it was the sad aftermath of the party, before going on to "Lady of a Certain Age" and then finishing the main set with "When the Working Day is Done" and the band leaving via the office door, before it got dismantled during the first encore. In fact, the dismantling of the set followed by the second acoustic encore at the front of the stage is so reminiscent of Pink Floyd/Roger Waters' shows of "The Wall" that it does make me wonder whether Neil saw one of them! And, by the way, more of those acoustic sets please Neil, that was great. A slightly cut down version of this show, with Neil losing his voice throughout, was broadcast on German TV and can still be seen on the WDR website: The Divine Comedy – Live Music Hall, Köln 2019 The tour runs until the 9th of November where it comes to a close in Braga, Portugal - the last TDC gig in front of a full paying audience to date! To be continued.... ( but not very much!)
