Share the post "Album review: THE DIVINE COMEDY – Office Politics"
DC Records [Release date 07.06.19]
Never one to do things by halves, Neil Hannon and the Divine Comedy return with a double album, three years after their last album ‘Foreverland’. As the album’s title suggests it has a loose theme based around the office and how everday life is changing in the face of rapid technological change. It also sees the return of a previous character or two, including Billie Bird.
‘Absolutely Obsolete’ is a guest filled song featuring Cathy Davey, Chris Difford (Squeeze) and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash, The Duckworth Lewis Method), whilst ‘Dark Days Are Here Again’, with a funereal choral part, is a brooding number with not much hope in the lyric. However, it is not all doom and gloom though as Neil Hannon has a natural knack of penning comedic lines, such as ‘See that PowerPoint presentation, worthy of a BAFTA nomination’ on the title track. This one sounds a bit like a jam with the Pet Shop Boys.
‘The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale’ features plenty of synths and effects, along with Neil Hannon rattling off more makes of a synthesiser than you can shake a stick at.
Interestingly he manages to cram in as many of his musical influences (Japan, Thomas Dolby, Art Of Noise are but three in a long list) as he can as the computer in the song asks him about music, one of many questions it poses to Hannon during the course of the spoken word ‘Psychological Evaluation’.
The two songs released off the album to date, namely ‘Queue Jumper’ and ‘Norman and Norma’, are unsurprisingly amongst the most instant songs on here. ‘Norman and Norma’ is a classic Divine Comedy tune, in that it tells the tale of an everyday couple trying to recapture their initial spark after a life of raising children and being married. They find that sparks comes back in the unlikely form of Saxon and Norman battle re-enactment!
As Neil Hannon says “I do try to make normal records, but it always seems to wander off into odd territories” and for this we are eternally grateful. I mean, who else would have the idea to make an accessible and comical song based on musical avant-garde composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, called ‘Phillip and Steve’s Furniture Removal Company’.
Want to know what quirky pop genius sounds like? Listen to ‘Office Politics’ as the Divine Comedy give us a masterclass in it. ****1/2
Review by Jason Ritchie
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Latest session: Sunday 14 April
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 7 April 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024
ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 15 April 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
To see our Tweets you need to be logged in to a Twitter account
Popular (last 10 days)
Share the post "Album review: THE DIVINE COMEDY – Office Politics"
PDF - you can delete unwanted sections
