Disco de The Divine Comedy: “Promenade”

Erudite lyrics, a crooner's voice that seems schmaltzy at first but which you'll gradually grow to love, strings and oboes, an ode to drunkenness, and the sexiest song about a rainstorm ever. "Promenade" chronicles a shared day in the life of two people in that giddy and uncertain phase of first realizing they may be in love. The first song is, appropriately enough, "Bath". Then "Going Downhill Fast", which is pure joy, speeding downhill on a bicycle while butterflies flutter inside. The couple goes to a bookstore, a seafood restaurant, get caught in a rainstorm, take a spin on a ferris wheel, go to the movies, and get drunk. Neil Hannon's unabashedly melodic voice and witty lyrics raise all these normal going-out activities to the level of the sublime.

This album takes some getting used to at first because of the high schmaltz factor, but once you get over laughing at it, you'll adore it.

Length - 52:13

Liberation was my first and only encounter with the seminal songsters, The Divine Comedy. At first bewildered by their bizarre and blatant noncomformism, I didn't quite know what to think of this album. After further listening and digesting; however, the eccentricities of this superb outfit unveiled to me a droll sense of humor, dynamic literacy and soaring, orchestral harmonies. An interesting characteristic of The Divine Comedy is in their influences. They seem to be undefinable in terms of music, but their lyrics and delivery are redolent of a number of famous literary pieces. The band is obviously well read, as evidenced by their scattershot literary references- most noteably Dante, F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Evangelists. This album progesses in classical epic fashion, veering around the corners of a tragicomic template in an expressive, diverse modus operandi that calls for a punctilious ear and an imaginative mind. There are several moments on Liberation that display a profound confluence of passion and ingenuity, particulary the songs Your Daddy's Car and I Was Born Yesterday, that are absolutely dazzling from start to finish. On the other hand, there are tracks so lugubrious that they teeter on the edge of being unendurable (Three Sisters and Europop). More often that not though, the better moments of this album arise and overshadow the disposable, crudely histrionic numbers. In a word, The Divine Comedy are worth checking out, and Liberation is as good a place as any to start.

If you agree with me that the Divine Comedy are, along withRadiohead and the Pet Shop Boys, the best British musical acts of the1990s (or 80s in the case of the Boys), then this can only be called their finest hour, before the image of Neil in that suit and tie took hold. Certainly, the album is easily the most cohesive they have ever produced. The album starts with 'Bath', and a 2-minute Michael Nyman-eque intro. It then goes on through such classics as 'The Summerhouse', Don't Look Down', 'A Drinking Song' and ends with The Divine Comedy's finest hour, 'Tonight We Fly'. Hannon was 24 when he wrote that song. Genius. It's not perfect; 'Neptune's Daughter' is boring, but the album, overall, is great. Buy it.

Hey, any Americans reading this - BUY "PROMENADE"! It is a sublime work of genius, from the dulcet tones of "Bath" through the eclectic list of authors in "The Booklovers" to the decadent "Drinking Song". This is what music could and should be like - and when you've finished with Promenade (if such a notion is possible), then find Casanova and Fin de Siècle - the two main albums to follow. Better still, e-mail me and let me preach on even more incessantly about the Hannon genius. I'll stop ranting now, but please buy this album if you love music!

This album has the same musical feel as his more recent Casanova but without so much accomplished decoration and arrangement. Also the sardonic raised-eyebrow is missing from the lyrics, which are more heartfelt. It has a couple of noticeably weaker tracks but the highlights easily justify the price - they are classics. He picks up where the Beatles left off, and combines the taste of Lennon, the whimsy of McCartney and the technical brilliance of George Martin.