Casanova

Recently I decided to update my cd collection with something of theirs but had no idea which album to get. I trawled through tons of reviews on the net and the concensus seemed to be that this is their best album.

Now I have 'Casanova' and 'Fin de Siecle' I can at least make some sort of judgement and I think this is an amazing album. Normally albums take a while to grow on me...first listening..hmmm a bit disappointing but gradually they get better. Not in this case! I liked this album from first listening and it just gets better and better with subsequent airings.

The lyrics are slick, humerous, witty and sharp - the music swells with orchesteral pop. Each song is a story told through the lyrics and the music. My favourites would have to be "Becoming more like Alfie" and "The Frog Princess".

Warning: If you listen to this CD at work be careful about head nodding along to it and laughing at the lyrics!

Haven't got a Divine Comedy CD but want one? Get this one.

Apparently Hannon’s record company at the time, Setanta, funded the recording of “Casanova” with the money they had made from the release of “A Girl Like You” by Edwyn Collins, which probably explains the larger orchestral presence on the album than the recording budgets for the previous two albums could accommodate. This in turn would provide Hannon with the means to realise in full the grandiose vision he clearly had in mind.
And he really pulls it off in style. The influences always mentioned in the same breath as Hannon - Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Noel Coward, perhaps even a touch of ELO - are very present indeed. It’s not a concept album as such, but it does have a constant theme running through it - that of casual sex and its effect on those who indulge but ultimately yearn for something more substantial - inspired by Hannon’s own experiences following his first flushes of pop success. “Becoming More Like Alfie” is the most blatant example, where Hannon likens himself to Michael Caine’s signature film character: “Now I’m resigned/to the kind of life I’d reserved/for other guys less smart than I/you know, the guys who will always end up with the girls,” he croons regretfully.
Hannon’s vibrant lyrical whimsy is hugely articulate, painting colourful pictures throughout of, amongst other things, sexual blackmail and robbery (“Something For The Weekend”), the sexual experience described like a military encounter (the superbly fruity innuendo-laden “Charge”) and sexual angst (“Through A Long And Sleepless Night”). In short, it is a very sexual album indeed.
It sounds rather like a soundtrack to an imaginary musical, and in this context it does contain one or two real show-stoppers, “A Woman Of The World” being the most prominent example, as it contains a wonderful and unexpected swing towards the end. I can almost see the top hat and tails glitzy Hollywood-style dance routine every time I hear it.
This is the album on which Joby Talbot, Hannon’s right hand man, really comes into his own as an arranger. Hannon is wise to defer to Talbot in this area, as the results are spectacular. There are so many examples of his ability to be subtle and restrained or bombastic and grandiloquent in equal measures throughout the album. I’ll not list them here, just buy the album and hear for yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.
This is an album rich in diversity, bathed in a lush orchestral glow. As ever, Hannon’s astounding bass/baritone voice booms with utter clarity. No problems wondering what that lyric was or whether you heard right will present themselves here. This is a superb album, filled with all the style, beauty, romance and decadence you could possibly fit on one disc. It epitomises Hannon’s raffish bounder persona, with which he was toying at the time, before he wisely decided to leave it behind and tread pastures new. For maximum effect, listen to this album in a creaky old oak panelled room in front of a roaring log fire, as you languish in a huge leather armchair with a nice bottle of vintage port and a couple of nubile, willing female companions. I’ve yet to try that…

Its not my place to pick out highlights for you, because you (thats everybody) should buy this album and go through that joyeus phase of being hit by special moments yourselves. But, if you insist, 'Through a long and sleepless night' is the best Track 9 I've ever heard on an album - uplifting and angsty, its the storm before the concluding calm. 'The frog princess' is splendidly wry, but at the same time doubles as a great pop song, 'Songs of Love' is THE perfect love song, intelligant, dry, and a fascinatingly good melody. The whole album is rich in classics - I only wish I could find the words to do it justice.

I finish this album for the fourth time in two days, in complete awe of Neil Hannon's songwriting, and completely baffled as to why its never mentioned in these 'top 10 albums of all time' lists we see so often going around. Not that it matters, of course, in the real world, because as long as beauty such as this exists we're all extremely lucky people.