Promenade
Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon is, alongside Morrissey, one of the most proper and correct of English-Irishmen in pop music. Morrissey, the son of Catholic working class parents, views his world wrapped around ’50s and ’60s cultural and criminal iconography. Hannon, whose father is a Church Of Ireland bishop, observes his from a more classic arcadian perspective. Promenade is, therefore, quite genteel, very witty, almost absurdly literate, and very post modern. It also can’t help but sound like an imaginary mixture of Michael Nyman and The Walker Brothers. Yep, that good.
Tony Clayton-Lea
Mojo 05/1994