Timewatching This is one of those times where even though I knew it was coming, I am still absolutely stunned to see all the low scores for such a beautiful song. Especially compared to high scores some of the lesser songs received (IMHO). This is definitely the best of the various versions and I am glad he saw it through. Love that somber side of Neil's writing. Make me cry please. 4.5/5
Timewatching I said in my review of the Liberation view that this one was the best in my opinion. I understand that many find the tempo unbearably slow, but no, not me.... Perhaps it is because I was most familiar with this version back in the day, maybe it is the richer arrangement and better vocal performance, it could be that it is part of a more cohesive album on ASAAL- but this version is my go to... 4.75/5
I think I've always jut dismissed it as being a bit too derivative of the Nat King Cole standard. It doesn't feel enough like a song in its own right to me. Having said that, I can understand why he went back to it for A Short Album - it fits thematically, and the opportunity to put the full orchestra behind it must have been pretty strong.
Timewatching Don't get the dislike of this. It's easily superior to the earlier version and well worth having been reworked. Hey' it's Neil without jokes! No horses clopping into this one or dog stories - shaggy or otherwise - but, hey the boy can sing! It's that point in the show by Ken Dodd or whoever when he stops larking about and sings a serious song. Happy to give it a 4/5.
Actually, I'd sort of agree with that. I'm not changing my mind, but this is arguably the only song on the album that has no jokes, no sky winks, no wordplay. Whether it's genuine or not, I guess it feels more genuine than any of the other tracks.
I agree that the song's not jokey, but there is quite a bit of wordplay at the end, actually: “When I fall in love / It will be forever / So I’ll never fall in love / But the moment I can feel that you feel that way too / Is when I might fall in love with you”
This reminds me of The Juliet Letters by Elvia Costello and The Brodsky Quartet. A very different feel from the rest of the album, but the stately and beautiful string arrangement just ‘aches’. I think it’s lovely. 4.5/5
Isn't it possible that the fact that we actually have so many versions to choose from is to blame, at least partly? With those other two songs (one of which I like, the other I don't particularly), they are the only versions available. I know that my main complaint with this latest version of Timewatching is that it's so dreadfully slow and ponderous. The song could do with some lightness - "The Summerhouse" has that wonderful cor anglais to lighten things up a little.
Seems to be the marmite song of the album. Not sure why Neil did this a third time, it wasn’t good the first two and only slightly better here. The orchestration adds depth to the sound but the slower pace does nothing for me and this is my least favourite on the album. Was Neil being pressured into releasing a new album and didn’t have the material? or did he think he could bring something else to the song?. I think the divergence of opinion is great. We are all big fans of TDC but like different things. No wrongs or rights and makes for great discussion. 2.8/5
I'm also enjoying the discussion and reading other people's differing views. I've never met a flesh and blood TDC fan, so its good to know that us fans are as varied as the music! Thanks to everyone for being so exceptionally civil, its oh so easy not to be, especially in an anonymous online situation. I personally tend to enjoy songs that tell a story or have a strong concept to them (although it depends on the story - Our Mutual Friend and Norman and Norma don't do anything for me). The Summerhouse and The Dogs and the Horses both do this, while Timewatch/ing to me seems to be purely a parody/cynical reworking of When I Fall in Love. I think, actually, I've realised I find the topic of love quite boring, which may explain my general ambivalence towards this album!
I like this slightly more than the Liberation version, but not enough to change the score. It's still 3.5/5, for the same reasons: You can see it on the DVD version. He's terrified through most of the gig, has this haughty defensive stance. But he pulls it off. Imagine singing this song (which you wrote) in front of hundreds of people with a 30 piece orchestra behind you. 26 years old. It's great. Also, there's a surprisingly strong new entry in the league table, though a frustrating one as I cannot hear when the note ends - somewhere between 4:10 and 4:15? Someone with a better sound system than me, please make a call! LONGEST NOTE LEAGUE TABLE (=note, -phrase) 1. Through a Long and Sleepless Night, 5:45=6:06, 21 seconds 2. Timewatching (ASAAL) 3:59=4:14?, 15? seconds 3. The Dogs and the Horses 3:33=3:43 10s, 3:44-3:56 12s 4. Your Daddy's Car, 3:18=3:27-3:29, 9/11 seconds 5. The Summerhouse 2:51=2:56-3:09, 5/18 seconds
Just to say, I've had a bad day and I'm really grateful to you for making me laugh three times in quick succession! From the quote in the song post, I guess Neil saw an opportunity to nail a song he felt he didn't get right the first time and he thought it would fit the theme particularly well. The box set notes suggest it was him that was pushing the pace, not Setanta ("I'd read my Penguin Guide To Pop you see. I knew the value of striking while the iron's hot."). I agree it feels a bit out of place, though without it, you'd have A Long EP About Love. The album is really quite a curious, almost fragile object, easily breakable with subtractions or additions. I prefer to think it was just too hard to perform - how would you do it on a guitar or piano? But I concede you might be right... Oh, yes! It's very The Birds Will Still Be Singing, isn't it? Fantastic song, I wonder if Neil knew that album...
Although a good few people seem to be dancing to a different tune this go around - with a few high scores which I rather suspect might be partially intended to counteract the low scores from last time, perchance - I am still dancing along to the same tune as before..... this is a dirge, and the worst track on the album by far. 2/5 Proverbs 26:11 - "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" The Lost Art Of Conversation would have been a good shout indeed! Another option (even if it's a cover) would be I've Been To A Marvellous Party methinks. By returning to the original version and performing an update of Timewatch instead I'm sure that with the additional decades of experience and maturity Neil *could* pull a live attempt of that version off very well.
It’ll be interesting to see where Can You Stand Upon One Leg ends up in this table! I have no idea how long that note is but the suspense is sort of killing me. I think I’ll go time it right away...
Your post made me laugh, especially this bit (I'm sort of surprised Neil hasn't pinched that line for a song. Yet...)
That would be interesting actually! His current band are so versatile I'm sure they could do something with it. Still pondering if this could have been a direct influence... Juliet Letters released January 1993, Liberation recorded March 1993. So possible, but fairly unlikely. If only we had dates for the demo recordings... "Delayed gratification, or deferred gratification, describes the process that the subject undergoes when the subject resists the temptation of an immediate reward in preference for a later reward. Generally, delayed gratification is associated with resisting a smaller but more immediate reward in order to receive a larger or more enduring reward later. A growing body of literature has linked the ability to delay gratification to a host of other positive outcomes, including academic success, physical health, psychological health, and social competence."
Who saw this coming? (Well, everyone who was around for "Liberation", I guess) - "Timewatching" is our lowest scorer on the album so far, racking up 55.6 points from 18 votes for a preliminary score of: 3.09
And so we come to the final song of the album (already? How can this be?!), as today's song is: I'm All You Need Another song leftover from the "Casanova" sessions, I have a sneaking suspicion that at one point it was meant to be on the album, purely because I once owned a large promo poster of the "Casanova" album artwork and the band/album title, and the only other text on it was right at the bottom where it said: "I'm all you need..." Indeed, ashortsite says: "If this song contains references to Casanova (horses, frogs and dogs), it is simply because it was recorded for the album Casanova, but it was eventually not considered good enough to be on the album. It was then recorded again for A Short Album About Love." Neil's 2020 liner notes don't offer a huge amount of information but do comment on the song's... um.... minimalism? "'I'm All You Need', however, wins the lyrical simplicity prize for sure. 'Baby' (long pause) 'I'm in love with you' (oh really, how interesting) 'and my love' (yes?) 'could go on' (uh-huh) 'and on'. Good line. Maybe you should do it five more times more or less the same. It all suits the vibe, though. You can really strut your Engelbert Humper-thing with this stuff. Scott Walker was the acceptable face of '60s balladeering, but I also loved Andy Williams, Harry Belafonte, Bobby Darin, Tom Jones, the Johnnys Mercer and Mathis, to name but a few. The posturing and artifice were art forms in themselves." Here's the final song from "A Short Album About Love", then.
I would have liked to hear the version that was recorded for "Casanova", if that really did happen, because the only other one we have available to us is this short demo, released on the new boxset.
The song was played live on the "Short Album" orchestral tour, and then only extremely rarely after that, so there are no live versions available on Youtube. However, EVEN BETTER THAN THAT, if you enjoyed the British talent show tribute to Neil from the other day, you might just find this even more incredible... "This particular Divine Comedy Tribute performance took place at Boba House in Tampa, Florida and it is meant as a tribute to the musical act and to build very much needed awareness of The Divine Comedy not just in America but worldwide. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a tribute done with enthusiasm for both the artist and the song." Enjoy!
I’m going to get in early on this one as I suspect I might not be on the same page as a lot of people today, but ‘I’m All You Need’ is the second song on A Short Album that I really, really love. Unlike ‘In Pursuit of Happiness’, the song certainly isn’t objectively perfect. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that, lyrically, it’s fairly weak. The lyrics to the verse feel like they were written as a placeholder and never replaced, and the chorus isn’t dramatically better. The call backs to the horses, the dogs and the frog from Casanova would feel more clever if he hadn’t already spent quite a lot of time singing about horses already during this album. But the performance and the arrangement lift this song into the top tier for me. The difference in dynamics between verse and chorus are very effective, the insistent chugging guitar part gives the song some drive, and the when the orchestra takes flight after the second chorus, it gives me genuine shivers up the spine every time I hear it. When the strings play their descending notes over their version of the second line in the verse, I feel a bolt of pure joy that is as strong as I get anywhere else in the catalogue. And that’s before the brass kicks in over the chorus. It’s a total triumph of style over substance (whereas ‘In Pursuit Of Happiness’ is a perfect combination of both), but it’s so good at what it does, I’m going to rate it just as highly anyway. It’s a 5/5 from me. I’m intrigued by the notion of The Dogs and the Horses being held back for this album – it had never occurred to me before this discussion, but I could see it working. As the final notes of ‘I’m All You Need’ melt away, the piano intro to ‘The Dogs And The Horses’ would have segued out quite nicely, and the lyrical reference to dogs / horses would have bridged the two quite nicely. It’s a thought.
The song is pretty nothing, the lyrics as mentioned in the quote above are banal in the extreme (and yes, there are the dogs and horses yet again!), but I can't deny it works as a decent vehicle for the band and orchestra to make easy-on-the-ear sounds. After we've got over our disappointment that he didn't save a masterpiece for the last track, like on the previous three albums, this glorified jam session is a pretty good way to finish the album. 3/5
