Business as usual for Neil Hannon's party of one.

It's three years since the eighth Divine Comedy album, Regeneration. Since then Neil Hannon has become a father, moved to Dublin and stripped the Divine Comedy down to a nucleus of one: himself. The result? An album that deals with identity and displacement. From the anthemic cap-doffing of the title track, to the sentimentality of Leaving Today (going on tour: tears) and The Wreck Of The Beautiful (a suken ship: many tears), to the ode to his kid, Charmed Life, this is another beautifully scored Divine Comedy album that sounds a bit like Scott Walker and lot like the last one.


Ted Kessler
Q Magazine 05/2004