Album Review: The Divine Comedy, Rainy Sunday Afternoon

The 13th album from The Divine Comedy opens with a pop jewel, which asks the greatest of all Greek warriors, “Was it so hard, Achilles, so very hard to die?”

It’s a line taken from Patrick Shaw-Stewart’s agonising poem, penned while waiting to be sent to Gallipoli.

The song also finds DC main man Neil Hannon whimsically pondering his own death: “I saw a man this morning, he was turning 55 / And his pampered mind was turning to thoughts of mortality.” Marvellous stuff altogether, but judging by the record sleeve – which features a svelte and youthful-looking Hannon – such macabre thoughts seem thankfully rather premature.

Orchestral pop gems abound here, none more so than ‘I Want You’ – a delightful rumination on the desires of “some people” to be Svengali or “Machiavelli’s fated Prince.”

The title track is a wonderful state-of-the-nation address, while ‘Down The Rabbit Hole’ daydreams about an illogical and magical world, where “Mr. Bitter slowly slipped away.” Elsewhere, the calypso-flavoured ‘Mar-A-Lago By The Sea’ focuses on a wonderfully odious piece of beachfront, where Bond villains and their ilk can while away their twilight years.

A great treat, particularly so soon after Hannon penned the original songs on last year’s global blockbuster Wonka.

8/10