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Post by jrmugz on Nov 6, 2014 16:28:19 GMT
OK, unomusette, here is my review of "Victory for the Comic Muse" by The Divine Comedy.
A fairly pleasant and unique CD.
I was surprised to see it came out in 2006; some of it had a much more dated feel. I assumed when I looked it up on Wikipedia, that the date would be from the late 70s to mid-80s period.
1. "To Die a Virgin" - The Kinks go psychadelic, in a lame attempt to be funny! 2. "Mother Dear" - Love the arrangement; upbeat, interesting, and funny. Great verse and chorus. 3. "Diva Lady" - Unique vocal, nice verses and music-scape. Pleasant sounding. Like the bellish sounding keyboard accents. 4. "A Lady of Certain Age" - Kind of depressing, but fairly engaging story, good character study. Beautiful arrangement! 5. "The Light of Day" - Very beautiful melodic chorus; nice song of hope. Starting to think they need to throw a change-up for the next pitch, starting to sound the same. 6. "Threesome" - Nice filler music. 7. "Party Fears Two" - It's OK, they probably should have done another original instead. Guess they felt it would fit in good. Does fit their style well enough. 8. "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World" - Starting to get redundant, they should put a different singer on one of these. A lot of trying to sound to clever on some of these, they need to throw in a rocker or something. 9. "The Plough" - This one works pretty good, very nice story about one's journey, good song for reflection. 10. "Count Grassi's Passage Over Piedmont" - A little bit of a change-up, kind of a welcome change. His talking seems a little more tolerable than his singing sometimes it seems. His singing for some reason has a creepy tone to it, like a perverted dentist would use, "OK little child, I thought of a quick fun secret game we can play...". 11."Snowball in Negative" - Nice dreamy sequence to close out an interesting CD.
Star rating: 3 of 5. Prime Cuts: The Plough, Diva Lady, Mother Dear Bottom Line: Like everything in life, take the meat and throw out the bones. When the dust clears, "Mother Dear" and "Diva Lady" are two decent tracks worth keeping and playing again. Shows that Hannon is a strong talent, worth keeping an eye out for some other good stuff!
Jim
PS Doggone it, now that I think of it, I better stay in the room with the kids next time I bring one to the dentist, instead of wait in the waiting room. Just in case. So, thanks unomusette, the CD served its purpose.
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Post by unomusette on Nov 6, 2014 23:13:54 GMT
Wow, thanks for such a full review Jim And thanks for making us all scared of the dentist too...I think... I do see your point about them sometimes overdoing the quirk factor, when they do it well it's brilliant but it can become a bit forced at times. And I'd never considered the Kinks influence, now you've pointed it out it's more obvious but I suppose I've been blinded by the ELO angle. A score of more than 50% is very acceptable, cheers!
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Post by unomusette on Nov 6, 2014 23:15:00 GMT
Hi unomusette, I got a start listening to it, and plan to have it all played and reviewed, ideally by tomorrow or Friday, so look for my feedback soon. Jim Same here. I'm a bit more than half way through. Woohoo! Looking forward very much to seeing what you think, can't wait!
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 6, 2014 23:43:04 GMT
Same here. I'm a bit more than half way through. Woohoo! Looking forward very much to seeing what you think, can't wait! Oh, what a pressure!
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Post by unomusette on Nov 6, 2014 23:47:39 GMT
*evil cackle*
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 6, 2014 23:55:54 GMT
If so: Song 1- Like Song 2- Like a lot Song 3- Live even more Song 4- Hair stands up on end and so...
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 6, 2014 23:56:42 GMT
Bollocks, I'm not going to let anyone put pressure over me! I'm already sharpening the knife, so prepare yourself, The Divine Comedy...
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Post by unomusette on Nov 7, 2014 21:25:33 GMT
Aww, don't be like that, you might even like some of it, honest!
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 7, 2014 22:29:28 GMT
I may have liked some of it already, but I will never admit it!
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 8, 2014 4:30:12 GMT
Here goes my review:
All in all, a pleasant album to listen. I liked at least half of the song. It is clear that Neil Hannon knows about music and he doesn’t just search for the easy melodies and chord sequences; he tried to go beyond that, and many times it comes out well (some others don’t, like “Count Grassi…”). As for the instrumental part, even when most of the songs aren’t full of virtuoso solos, the arrangements are quite elaborate and there’s some serious work behind them. Also, there’s quite a wide variety of instruments (in all 3 families of instruments) used on the album.
On the cons side, I don’t like Neil Hannon’s voice and style of singing much. I don’t find it very versatile. He sings very well, but I find it like a singer of musicals that can’t switch to other forms of expression when required. He has the same theatrical tone all throughout the album and at some point you want to hear, if not another voice, at least that same voice singing in another style. In this aspect I think he still has to learn from Jeff. Also, it has happened to me a bit the same than in the album Horace posted last week: the songs I liked best were the ones that were an exception to the rule of the album. On that occasion the rule was disco songs, on this one it was songs sounding like from musicals (and I’m not keen on musicals). Luckily enough, the album had a good number of exceptions to that rule so as to make it enjoyable.
- To die a virgin: funny lyrics, the music is “jumpy” and gay (as in happy), with that rhythm and those “shalalalas” on the chorus. I liked that winds section. The chorus is strong. Good way of opening the album.
- Mother dear: I liked it. Nice country rhythm and good sounding banjo. The melody is convincing as well. In some parts I’ve found a similarity with The Move’s “Ben Crawley Steel Company”. Pleasant and funny song.
- Diva lady: not my favorite. It repeats too much the main riff (which I don’t find particularly interesting). Even if you think you got a winner in that riff, I think you don’t have to abuse so much from it.
- A lady of certain age: first ballad of the album. The melody and the music in general succeed in creating a depressing atmosphere, that is what the story of the song is about. I loved the strings arrangements.
-The light of day: fantastic ballad. Liked it from the first listen. I felt like this one was the first song of the album they were intending to be 100% serious and they did a great job. Really inspired. Great melody, wonderful strings arrangements, very sharp harpsichord accompaniment… everything on it was perfect, and quite haunting.
- Threesome: nice little instrumental, pleasant.
- Party fears two: I didn’t like it at all. At all!
- Arthur C. Clarke’s mysterious world: much better. Good pop song, I loved the verses. The melody comes and goes but always closes in the right moment. It has some Mexican sounding wind sections in the background. I didn’t find it lame s you say, Uno; in fact, I think it’s one of the best ones. That semi-automatic machine gun percussion adds a particular touch too.
- The plough: a 3 X 4 rhythm song marked by piano. Despite how much you guys have praised it, it sounds too much to a song taken out from a musical (like Mary Poppins or The sound of music) for my taste, and I’m not a fan of musicals. Really didn’t get it.
- Count Grassi's Passage Over Piedmont: wow, this one was baffling. Everything on it was, from the rhythmic section to the way he combines spoken and sung parts. Messy and weird.
- Snowball in negative: I rarely like songs that are so slow, and I didn’t find this one particularly special so as to make an exception to that rule. Not the best way to close the album IMO.
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Post by Helmut83 on Nov 8, 2014 5:27:57 GMT
For some reason many of their songs remind me of a galloping horse!! The farm, Horace. You are too obsessed with it. I told you you needed a vacation in town. Ever since EAO is no longer on tour, you've got no one to help you look after the animals. No wonder you hear them even in the songs.
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Post by unomusette on Nov 8, 2014 21:31:40 GMT
A million thanks, Helmut, for your thoughtful review to end the week. I knew you'd be approaching it from a totally different angle to me so I've been looking forward to hearing what you thought. I might have guessed our opinions would be total opposites on some songs - eg Arthur C Clarke and Count Grassi. Yet again this is why this thread is such an eye-opener, to dare expose one of your favourite albums here is to risk hearing that maybe it's not as good as you thought or to find that other people see good things where you saw none. I vote we all go down to Horace's farm to admire our animal bandmates, have a (secretly meaty) barbecue and celebrate the end of another CD of the week, come on!
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Post by Horacewimp on Nov 8, 2014 21:40:55 GMT
shhhhhhh, don't tell the turkey and geese why they are having extra food, Xmas is just around the corner Thinking of Xmas, next time you are in Poundland Uno can you get some baubles for the forum Christmas tree please, make sure you get a receipt to claim your money back, I'm sure those One Direction forum members dropped some money down the back of the sofa when Helmut and JLN ruffed them up during the Halloween party.
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Post by Buttler on Nov 8, 2014 21:43:01 GMT
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Post by unomusette on Nov 8, 2014 21:56:12 GMT
shhhhhhh, don't tell the turkey and geese why they are having extra food, Xmas is just around the corner Thinking of Xmas, next time you are in Poundland Uno can you get some baubles for the forum Christmas tree please, make sure you get a receipt to claim your money back, I'm sure those One Direction forum members dropped some money down the back of the sofa when Helmut and JLN ruffed them up during the Halloween party. Bacon rolls and caramelised onions are Mum's the word, Horace. Baubles, check. I'm not paying more than a pound for them though. I'll look out for some Santa hats, tinsel and party squeakers too. Are we making our own crackers? I can start saving toilet roll middles....
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