Disco de The Divine Comedy: “Short Album About Love”

My current copy of this album is the third one I bought. I lent my first two to friends and they liked it so much I just had to let them have it.

The Divine Comedy - A Short Album About Love (Setanta)

Recorded last year at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, with an orchestra (The Brunel Ensemble) in tow, The Divine Comedy's "A Short Album About Love" is a seven track collection of songs they were unable to place onto their three previous outings.

Neil Hannon has a wonderful gift of bringing late `60s classic easy listening pop chic into the `90s without making it sound twee or in any way forced. Comparable to Scott Walker or Harry Nilsson in feel, neither sang lyrics as funny as those on "If...", though the latter came close on a couple of occasions.

"A Short Album About Love" is a genuinely impressive collection and anyone who enjoyed the previous record ("Casanova") should do themselves a huge service and invest promptly. It comes in a nice box and it'll make your day.

With just seven tracks, this is more of an EP release, but that doesn't take away from the importance of these seven tracks in the anals of divine comedy. It is the one divine comedy album that is consistent within itself - and each song is beautifully composed, sung and orchestrated. as lush and lavish a production one can hope for - neil hannon really does write music that, quite simply, makes you glad to be alive, whether you're hurting or loving. a must have!

This short album packs a lot of punch. Neil Hannon was still using a full orchestra for this one and it's rich and beautiful. The real highlights for me on any DC album, though, are always the whimsical lyrics and Hannon's spectacular voice. This album delivers on both counts. My CD came in this afternoon, and I've already listened to it four times. And yes, I bought a used cd rather than an mp3 download. Because Hannon's voice is that good - it deserves better than mp3 treatment. A few of these songs can be found on other Divine Comedy albums, including the 1999 "best of" collection, 'A Secret History,' but they work really well played consecutively, and so I would say buying the album is worth it. I could easily recommend favorite tracks, but honestly they are all strong. Highly recommended.

This album was my first introduction to Divine Comedy and it just completely amazed me. I had finally found an answer to all my misery caused by the stuff that was playing on the radio. Divine Comedy is pop like it should be. On top of that, the lyrics are really intelligent (in other albums maybe a little too pretentious). But "A short album about love" is not ladden with sappy love songs. "If" is actually really funny and I just cracked up when I heard it the first time. There are sincere ones on the album like "I'm all you need" (my favorite), "everybody knows" and "someone". The band's leader Neil Hannon has a beautiful clear voice (and a beautiful face, i might add) and a great talent for orchestrating everything to perfection. I'm lucky to have found a copy with several bonus tracks that include "birds of paradise" and "road to damascus" (where Hannon sings so sexy).