Liberation - You will feel liberated
Written: Aug 04 '06 (Updated Sep 15 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A mighty fine album for easy listening.
Cons: A few unmemorable songs.
The Bottom Line: A successful opening to Neil Hannon's career.
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| psi_fla's Full Review: Liberation by The Divine Comedy |
INTRODUCTION
We sit down and listen to every Divine Comedy album looking for the same irreverent, intelligent, melodic and touching aspects that Neil Hannon has made his oeuvre since the very beginning.
Truly, Neil Hannon has proved himself to be the king of irreverence for everyone...and he hasn't had to try so hard to achieve this accolade.
The review you're about to read is just one of several I have written to help underline, in my personal opinion, just how well each Divine Comedy album succeeds.
So let's get started with Liberation...
Track List
1. Festive Road
2. Death Of A Supernaturalist
3. Bernice Bobs Her Hair
4. I Was Born Yesterday
5. Your Daddy's Car
6. Europop
7. Timewatching
8. The Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count
9. Queen Of The South
10. Victoria Falls
11. Three Sisters
12. Europe By Train
13. Lucy
Standouts: Europop, The Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count, Lucy
With Fanfare For The Comic Muse, the first Divine Comedy album, consigned to deletion, Liberation has since been declared as The Divine Comedy's official starting point. A decisively modest one at that, especially compared to some of their later works. Not that there's anything wrong with that, though - this is still among their best albums.
Sheer lyrical and melodic beauty opens the album in the form of Festive Road and Death Of A Supernaturalist, with a good use of piano in the former and violins in the latter. (To get the best effect, though, I recommend you listen to them together.) The "beauty", so to speak, generally continues throughout the album - it is a very summer-y sound, intended to make you feel "liberated" (hence the title). And there are plenty who will say it does so.
The general excitement to be gained from listening to, or even singing, The Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count ensures that it's probably the best song on the album. If the lyrics are typically inane, that's a strength here - Europop is another of the album's highlights despite being, well, even more ridiculous. (So Neil Hannon has to be silly for the best results then, does he? Maybe...)
Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame once labelled Your Daddy's Car "the ultimate love song". Well, I'm not so sure it deserves that accolade, but it's certainly one of my favourite songs on the album. So is Bernice Bobs Her Hair, though it helps if you read the short story it's based on first. (That they don't end up on the standouts list speaks to how good the standouts on this album are.)
Timewatching and Three Sisters also deserve an honorable mention (the former more for the music, the latter more for the lyrics). However, the album does have its obvious weak spots. Queen Of The South, I Was Born Yesterday and Victoria Falls are nice, soothing tunes, but the latter two aren't so memorable. Equally unmemorable is the album's instrumental interlude, Europe By Train. Still, Liberation gets a conclusion worthy of any fine album thanks to the wonderful Lucy, which at one point was my all time favourite Divine Comedy song. (Listen and you'll know why.)
While not all of Liberation's songs are truly wonderful, it is a difficult album to beat for easy listening.
INTERESTING FACTS
Death Of A Supernaturalist opens with a quote from the Merchant Ivory film adaptation of A Room For A View, released in 1985.
Bernice Bobs Her Hair is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Three Sisters cleverly incorporates some Arabic music.
Lucy is an amalgam of three poems by William Wordsworth.
See my other Divine Comedy reviews:
Promenade (1994)/ Casanova (1996)/ A Short Album About Love (1997)/ Fin de Siecle (1998)/ Regeneration (2001)/ Absent Friends (2004)/ Victory For The Comic Muse (2006)
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Listening
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psi_fla
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Reviews written: 21
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