Despite (or because of?) listening to 4,000+ different artists, and 100,000+ minutes of music, TDC were my top artist with 1,300 or so minutes played this year. (If I Were You being my number one Neil song apparently) Definitely down to this thread, and just overtaking Sufjan and Efterklang to reach my number 2 position on my last.fm (with a very unknown Swedish band, Old Amica, as my number one). Although that obviously doesn't count all of my cd listenings as a youth! Anyway: Espana I enjoyed watching the Isolation Song contest, in lieu of Eurovision, which I worryingly seem to enjoy watching more each year. This song was catchy and fun for what it was. 3
Te Amo España This one passed me by when it happened. I was aware of it, but I didn't make an effort to seek it out because I assumed it would be... well, exactly what it was, I guess. I mean, it's fine, but it is what it is. Written and recorded as a bit of a laugh, it does its job admirably, but like Trafalger, it's of limited interest to me. If it wasn't written by Neil, it would have absolutely no interest to me whatsoever. The fact that it's found its way onto the Charmed Life bonus disc is a little worrying - hopefully it'll be an outlier for the sake of completion (though it makes it all the more galling that Don't Mention The War is absent). What's it worth. I don't know. 2/5, maybe? I'm glad we've got another song to come - this would be a pretty damp squib of an ending.
Te Amo España is a lot better than it needs to be really, but I'm having trouble getting into the spirit of it after that atrocious cover of With A Little Help From My Friends. People have fun... I'm not in favour of it. (Didn't score Trafalgar so won't score this. (Did score My Lovely Horse but probably shouldn't have.)) 4,191 minutes listening to Neil on Spotify this year, which is about 3 days or roughly 1% of the entire year, and doesn't include a lot of time on here or YouTube. Not going to think about that too much. The box set. Agree with much of what's been said already. I would have liked all the B-sides, the glitches are regrettable, even more notes would have been very welcome etc etc. But in the end, it's a fantastic beautiful thing, and (again) a lot better than it needed to be, especially since we can't see the budgeting, licensing etc constraints that Neil and team were working under. One thing I really appreciate is that each of the albums maintains its own identity and original packaging, while still being part of the larger box set. It's very elegant, and I can't think of another box set that does this so well. Single albums with bonus discs, yes; career box sets with albums jumbled up with bonus tracks and smeared into the box set artwork, yes; complete album collections without bonus tracks, yes. But a career-spanning album set, with a bonus disc for every album, that maintains original packaging, and has (glorious) art for the whole box? Can't think of anyone who's done it better. (Box set aficionados, please remind me of the many exceptions, because I may well want to buy them...)
Divine Comedy History Lesson, Part 46 (parte the laste) We will return to April 2020 tomorrow, in order to finish with a proper song, but for now let’s carry on with May- where Neil has seemingly found that it’s quite good fun to broadcast to the world without leaving his house. On May the 8th, as previously announced by a Facebook post with a short video message, Neil live streams a special gig for charity, where he plays some songs on acoustic guitar whilst he has his hair cut by… um… Cathy. Who is by no means a hairdresser The results are… interesting? But the gig is fun, and yes, the first song is “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” https://youtu.be/mKCjyv_FMWE On May the 31st, Neil appears as a special guest on a podcast called “The Elevenses Show” in aid of the Music Venues Trust, where he talks a bit about the Isolation Song Contest and more besides. By the 20th of July, he’s summoned up the courage to leave home, and heads over to nearby Glenveagh National Park to live stream a solo gig from the opulent surroundings of a stately home, for the Other Voices Courage 2020 event - a gig that also features duets with Cathy and another musician called Eve Belle who plays some of her own material. A very luxurious-looking production, and well worth a watch! On October the 14th, a momentous event occurs as the full Divine Comedy band play their first in-person gig in nearly a year (and the last to date) - a “best of” set to a socially-distanced crowd at London’s Barbican Hall, live-streamed with an elite and carefully selected attendee list in the room including yours truly It’s only an hour long set, but boy do we lap it up - everyone needs this: the band and the audience. Before the gig, my wife and I go to the Côte Brasserie across the road where we are halfway through our meal when I realise that sitting across from us on the other side of a low partition wall is Simon Little (TDC Bass player). He’s facing me so I can see quite clearly it’s him, but I can’t work out who’s sitting opposite him at the table, they’re quite short so are partially obscured by some plants, but judging by the haircut that I can see from the rear and the fact that they are sort of hunched in their chair and look a bit frail, I surmise that perhaps it’s his mum or auntie… how lovely! Eventually they get up to go, and I realise I’ve been looking at the back of Neil’s head for the last hour. To be continued… perhaps… one day
Te Amo España Good fun, and the video with its sun-baked muted colors is amusing. Wonder if the Lamb intro will be included on Charmed Life....? 3.5/5
Oh, history lesson appendix: To close out 2020, there’s a Christmas streamed gig from Dublin on December the 18th, billed as “Cathy Davey with Neil Hannon and Special Guests”, the special guests being a bunch of other Irish musicians including Conor from Villagers (my personal highlight). It’s a really lovely Christmas-feeling gig of mostly traditional music, (no TDC tunes!) which I would recommend probably more for the other artists than Neil’s contribution, because he is barely participating and as a result becomes extreeeemely drunk during the course of it Still, the wife and I put this on while we were wrapping our presents last year and had a lovely cosy evening - might even do the same again this year! Charity Christmas Stream here… (starts at 15:45 into the video)
I was about to berate you for lacking a sense of humour or being a humbug, given that this song was created for a charity comedy show and wasn’t remotely intended to be taken seriously. I was going to go on to say that if it was included on a Divine Comedy album then you might have a point. And then @jon-senior pointed out that it’s included on the “Charmed Life” bonus disc, so… as you were
Alright then, here’s the final song we will rate on this thread (until Neil releases something new!) Outside Released on YouTube on the 16th of April 2020, the video’s description says: "Neil Hannon writes: "My excellent band and I were bored, and we fancied trying to record something remotely for the first time. I wrote this song a few years ago. It almost made it onto 'Office Politics' but fell at the last. The lyrics in case you’re wondering, were inspired by my teenage shyness (with a soupçon of hay fever for good measure). We hope you like it." I suspect we'll be discussing this song again next year, as there's a track called "Don't Make Me Go Outside" on the bonus disc of "Charmed Life"!
Thing is, I don't begrudge Neil for being less serious than usual, god knows even Nick Cave has his lighter moments from time to time. It's just the level of humour I find on this that is tiresome. If it was more of an affectionate tribute to Eurovision I think I'd warm to it a bit more, but the tone seems mocking to me. I watch Eurovision every year and while a lot of it is frankly not very good I can't recall anyone ever trying to rhyme "paella" with "unwell-a" before. There's something about the idea of a "proper" songwriter having a pop at other writers that doesn't sit well with me, especially when his own writing frankly isn't what it used to be. I suppose at a stretch you could argue "Europop" (and to a lesser degree "After The Lord Mayor's Show") also are somewhat sneering about lesser musical forms, but I don't mind those because they have serious things to say (or at least I assume they do, I'm not sure I ever got my head completely around what "Europop" is trying to say. But it seems fairly deep whatever it is )
Outside - I fully agree with the sentiment expressed in the lyric, so I suppose I should like this. But I find it a bit boring really. And the drum machine bossa nova beat doesn't help much. It all seems a bit perfunctory really. On the plus side it's not as irritating as Te Amo Espana. So on that basis I'll give it 3 /5 I suppose.
Outside I really like Neil's voice and melody of the main chorus line. I'm not that keen on the instrumental interlude in the middle though, but on the whole I like the song despite that. 3.5
Outside Very pleasant and nice to hear it when it came out (or in my case come across it 6 months later). If it was on an album I'm sure I'd score it less. 3.5/5 As an aside, I'm don't have particularly high hopes for myself liking the upcoming bonus disc all that much, but it serves a purpose, is a place to put these odds and ends, and probably a proportion of whatever Neil makes from sales will go towards animal feed or something, and I'm always very happy to support his music (and independent artists generally), so I'll buy it anyway (digitally) and then look forward to the next 'proper' album or other projects whenever they might arrive
Thanks for posting a link to this, I missed it, but saw a highlights show that included a couple of their songs, and it looked really good, so am pleased someone has put the whole thing onto YouTube.
Was meaning to have a go at your game but haven't got around to it yet. As idiosyncratic as you wish, you say...?
Outside Context counts for a lot, I think. When this popped up on the twitter feed, I couldn't have been more delighted. The world felt very strange and unsettled, so a surprise new Divine Comedy song (and video) being put out there for free was a lovely little treat, and the fact that the sentiments linked (kind of) the state of the world at the time was like the icing on the cake (interesting, of course, that it wasn't written for the pandemic, but at the same time as the rest of the Foreverland / Office Politics stuff, I think?) It's quite a simple song - simple verse / chorus structure with an instrumental but no bridge thrown into the mix. But, it holds up well - Neil's vocal delivery is well pitched, and the band all sound good. Tosh's guitar line is particularly nice, I think. Stripped of its context, I think it would have made a perfectly decent album track, though I don't think it would have found a comfortable thematic home on either of the last two albums. If the rest of the Charmed Life bonus disc sounds like this, I'll be perfectly happy with it. I'm curious as to whether we'll get the same version - the fact that it's been retitled makes me wonder whether we'll get a different, perhaps fuller studio accompaniment. If they'd worked in previously, there's presumably a version sitting around that wasn't recorded by everyone at home. 3.5/5
Sure, but if you make it too unusual Neil might get annoyed at your sinking his sales numbers. Still, if you chuck “National Express” on there everything should be good with the public. I’ll post mine once I’m back at my computer.
Outside Another nice number with a soft instrumental backing that works nicely with the understated vocal from Neil. The melody is pleasing and I like the accordion here. A fine track, and I'm glad to see that it will be included in some form on the coming bonus disc. 3.9
Ah, good point... I wouldn't want that. I might include National Express and My Lovely Horse, in that case...
Outside Part of my fondness for this song might be that it arrived when I really needed a pick-me-up, but I think it's actually a really good song. Nice arrangement, simple but effective chords and melody, relatable sentiment. I'm tempted to give it a 4, but it's not quite as good as some of the songs I've scored that high so it's 3.9/5.
So this would be my best of, compiled well before we had the announcement of Charmed Life. Per my pretend label rules, I've included the required singles and included at least one song from each album. My track list would be (always in chronological order, as non-chronological best of records aggravate me, and yeah, I'm looking at you Hannon): 1. Europop (4:44) 2. Lucy (4:39) 3. The Summerhouse (4:14) 4. Geronimo (1:53) 5. Tonight We Fly (3:01) 6. Something for the Weekend (single) (4:20) 7. Songs of Love (3:27) 8. Everybody Knows (single) (3:48) 9. National Express (single) (5:07) 10. Lost Property (4:39) 11. Our Mutual Friend (5:59) 12. Absolute Power (3:52) 13. Lady of a Certain Age (single) (5:50) 14. Light of Day (4:26) 15. Count Grassi’s Passage Over Piedmont (3:34) 16. Down in the Street Below (5:09) 17. To the Rescue (single) (5:16) 18. The Pact (2:56) 19. Queuejumper (single) (3:07) I've tried to balance personal favorites with the singles everyone expects to be on such a disc; if I made a CD-sized playlist of favorite DC tracks, it wouldn't have several tracks here that are either not personal favorites or are just overplayed (and we all know what most of those are - basically the singles). Including "To the Rescue" and "Queuejumper" as singles may be stretching the definition of that term slightly, but in this day and age, that's basically what they were. "Absolute Power" remains, as I said when we covered it, a track I can't believe he left as a b-side, so I'm including it here as a personal favorite, along with "Count Grassi," another track in my personal top 5 DC tracks. And while I don't regard "Queuejumper" as the best track on that record, including "Philip and Steve" seemed really at odds with everything else on the list, so I went for the single. And between it and "Norman and Norma," I went for the track that was at least a little different from the "typical" DC sound. Oh, as an aside, the t-shirt that comes with the Charmed Life release finally had its design unveiled, and it isn't "DESIGN NOT FINAL"; it's butterflies.
I attempted this months ago, and tried again today. Meeting all the rules is a challenging to brutal exercise in reduction. Still many minutes over after multiple disheartening cuts, so will continue to tinker. There are certain tracks that should be on there to be fair to the "commercial product" ethos (still, National Express is one I omitted so far). I'll probably have a separate go at a 2-CD version geared to my own taste.
Yeah, that was part of what I felt would add a little realism to the exercise; it would have to have the singles that Joe and Jane Public would expect, but you'd be able to slip in the odd personal favorites if you gave the people what they want as well.
I like yours. Some interesting choices here and there, but many similarities to mine so far. Regarding the one-from-each-album requirement, I'm finding Regeneration the most difficult album for that.
