The Divine Comedy
Office Politics - DCR 2019
Tracks: 1. Queuejumper / 2. Office Politics / 3. Norman And Norma / 4. Absolutely Obsolete / 5. Infernal Machines / 6. You'll Never Work In This Town Again / 7. Psychological Evaluation / 8. The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale / 9. The Life And Soul Of The Party / 10. A Feather In Your Cap / 11. I'm A Stanger Here / 12. Dark Days Are Here Again / 13. Philip And Steve's Furniture Removal Company / 14. Opportunity' Knox / 15. After The Lord Mayor's Show / 16. When The Working Day Is Done // 1. Whistle For A Wind / 2. The Swallow / 3. The Conquering Heroes / 4. Fighting Swallow / 5. The Amazon Pirates / 6. The Parley / 7. Better Drowned Than Duffers / 8. Let's Make The Best Of It / 9. Navy Stroke / 10. Like Robinson Crusoe / 11. Titty's Dream / 12. The Conquering Heroes, Victory Chorus / 13. The Black Spot / 14. The Parley - Flint's Apology / 15. Swallows And Amazons Forever
Comments:
This album from The Divine Comedy / Neil Hannon contains many musical surprises. It’s not that Hannon usually has problems with searching new musical pastures, but this time he goes so far that it may well be objected that it goes beyond homogeneity and overall impression of consistancy.
To start with the positive, so far two singles have been released from the album, which in different ways excel. "Queuejumper" is a rather simple and light thing that is so catchy that you easily come to find yourself by singing lines from the song, whether you like it or not, like, ."I jump the queue," case I'm better then you”.
"Norman and Norma" is classic Divine Comedy at their very best. It contains virtually everything I love for the group; nice melody, interesting arrangement and good lyrics. An absolute highlight.
Another potential classic is "After the Lord Mayer's Show". A nice and somewhat melancholy melody arranged as you would expect from D.C. Another absolute favorite.
What else is there to find within the broad definition of "classic Divine Comedy" ??
"Absolute Obsolete" is a bit monotonous, but okay and Divine Comedy as we know them. The quiet and melodic "A Feather in Your Cap" is also quite a nice song, without being particularly memorable. This is, on the other hand, the strongly Scott Walker and 1960s inspired "You Never Never Work in This Town Again"
A few songs are a bit in a gloomy musical style (this has been seen from D.C. before); "I'm a Stranger Here" and "When the Working Day is Done".
On some songs, inspiration is felt from groups such as Steely Dan and 10CC. E.g. "Office Politics", which with techno, rapping repetitions quickly becomes tedious. "The Life and the Soul of the Party" is better - a little soul disco and 10CC vocals.
On the negative side, there are a handful of numbers that may be interesting one or two times, but which you afterwards are very likely to skip. The titles may in some cases be a warning; "Infernal Machines", "The Synthesizer Service Center", "Psychology Evaluation", "The Dark Days are Here Again" and "Philip and Steve's Furniture Removal Company"; numbers that in different ways quickly become sluggish and tiring.
I am, though, quite satisfied with the album despite the very uneven overall impression; how can one be otherwise with fine songs such as "Norman and Norma", "After the Lord Mayer's Show" and "Youll Never Work in This Town Again".
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