Tales of the Peripatetic Mobile Librarian!
Written: May 04 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A real quirky return to form.
Cons: ...no, nothing really...
The Bottom Line: Mixture of old and new, serious and jokey... perfect pop for pedant people
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| cr01's Full Review: Absent Friends by The Divine Comedy |
The Divine Comedy’s most recent offering prior to 2004’s Absent Friends (2001’s Regeneration) gave some notion that Neil Hannon (the Irishman who is The Divine Comedy) was actually starting to take notice of current musical fashion. In direct contrast to the lush orchestral almost operatic scores for earlier Divine Comedy recordings, the electronic theme of Regeneration even came across a little like Radiohead (gasp) in places. While Regeneration is a fine album, it didn’t really register with me as a Divine Comedy classic for this reason.
Since Regeneration, it has been a long wait for The Divine Comedy’s latest album Absent Friends, recorded over three long years, and it finds Hannon in fine and firm orchestral fettle. While the generally mournful sounding album and dearth of obvious hits is unlikely to find Hannon many new friends, Absent Friends represents a welcome return to the grand musical standards that fans of The Divine Comedy expect.
Lyrically Hannon is as quirky and fey as ever, turning the most mundane of events into a mini opera. One of the real classics on the album is the musically beautiful Our Mutual Friend, a beautifully edgy orchestral piece, and Hannon’s deadpan sad voice about a mundane and drunken night with a wanna be lover, and their mutual friend.
We talked about the noise
And how it’s hard to hear your own voice
Above the beat and the sub-bass...
The album opens with the title track a real oddity, a kind of orchestral TV Western theme tune music coupled with quirky lyrics about famous friends including Steve McQueen and Laika the groundbreaking canine space explorer.
Steve McQueen jumped the first one clean
But the great escape he tried to make was not to be
Maybe next time, Steve
Laika flew through inky blue
‘til Laika neared the atmosphere and Laika knew
Laika’s life was through
The theme of the luckless Laika recurs with a tuneful instrumental dedicated as Laika’s Theme; a suitably starry sound.
I think what I really admire about The Divine Comedy is Hannon’s ability to produce some of the worlds most unusual song lyrics together with an unashamed musical attempt to produce timeless classics in the style of some of the 60’s greats like Bacharach and David.
Sticks and Stones is a real throwback to the 1960’s and those classic singers like Scott Walker. Lush orchestration and dramatic phrasing are the order of the day, although I have to say Hannon has produced better of this ilk on other albums.
Fatherhood and relationships also loom large in the collection. The only really obvious single on the album is the catchy and bouncy Come Home Billy Bird. This is a song about a business traveller who has spent a night on the tiles with some Belgium business men, and the song catalogues his trials at the airport while he attempts to make it home in time for his son’s soccer match.
My Imaginary Friend has a kids TV style musical backing, and is from a small child’s perspective a tale about an imaginary friend, a child who creates an imaginary friend because his father works in a mobile library. The song amply demonstrates the power of Hannon’s fey whimsy, and must be one of the few songs in the world that manages to squeeze in the word peripatetically!
The Happy Goth is perhaps another contender for a single, with its catchy light chorus, although the subject material and song itself about a happy Goth girl is rather unsubstantial. The story is apparently about Hannon’s wife who in her teenage years went to see The Cure live and then didn’t speak to her parents in over a week!
Leaving Today could almost be a Scott Walker song, and Hannon gets the tone just right. Unlike, Walker who normally dealt with stark tales of tragedy, Leaving Today is a lament to having to leave his wife and child, but with a twist; he is only going away for a few days and will soon return.
The most mournful recording on the album has to be The Beautiful, a scary tale about a crumbling navy ship (named "The Beautiful") that decided to sink itself when it discovered that it was to be broken up.
Freedom Road is a kind of road song, and Hannon sounds a little like an Irish Bruce Springsteen (it kinda reminds me of an orchestral version of a track from Nevada). The song is about an early morning drive before the traffic clogs up the road.
Considering this is a series of songs recorded over a three year period in three different recording studios, Absent Friends hangs together very well. While there are no real duffers in the album (Sticks and Stones comes closest), there are some real new Divine Comedy classics.
I’m for one glad that this particular Absent Friend has come home.
The Divine Comedy – Absent Friends -2004
Absent Friends
Sticks and Stones
Leaving Today
Come Home Billy Bird
My Imaginary Friend
The Wreck of the Beautiful
Our Mutual Friend
The Happy Goth
Freedom Road
Laika’s Theme
Charmed Life
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cr01 asserts his right to be associated as the author of this review -2004-
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
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