And finally, I simply don't have time for mediocrity and the untalented, but then I find genius and envy it so I can't win. Running fast and loose with this level of talent is artistically risky, but worth it for the resounding victories which could not be achieved without that. Best wishes Neil, Marc Lemon.
I always loved National express, and yes I thought it was about buses, during lockdown I went back and listened to all my favourite music and have now become obsessed by all of divine comedy songs, they cheer you up no doubt about it x
The silence at 1:25 is replaced by the word 'dickhead' in the album version, in case you're wondering what that's about. Very excited for the album. :)
Wow! My Instagram showed me TDC today with the beautiful Burt Bacharach tribute. I love this video. Where is this house? I remember seeing The Divine Comedy open for Tori Amos at Her Majesty’s Theater in London on a Sunday night, a spellbinding evening. PHANTOM was dark that night, so being in this space and seeing these performers onstage there was ethereal and some 30 years later, unforgettable. Merci!
OK - since Neil has referenced Steve McQueen and the Great Escape in earlier material, I'm guessing there is an homage at 30 seconds to Steve bouncing the baseball in the cooler. Nothing wrong with a good pop hit too!
Not bad. Not bad at all. I'm more a fan of the big orchestral crooner numbers, but I always enjoy a nice pop number too. I certainly appreciate the ELO influence, and there's some nice similarities to the Come Home Billy Bird demo version in there as well. Great music video too. Very funny. Definetely one of your best. My only complaint with this single (and the previous one) is the lack of b-sides. I know they're a bit redundant in the era of downloads, but hopefully Neil will consider bringing them back for your next outing. He's had some great ones over the years.
Very ELO, but they had some great tracks so I'm not complaining. Apparently he had a lot of songs to whittle down into the album, so there really should be some b sides.
I heard that too, but so far neither "Catherine the Great" nor this one have had any b-sides. It's kind of sad because (as I mentioned before) he's had some great ones. "Absolute Power", "Births, Deaths & Marriages" and "Maryland Electric Rainstorm" are among some of my favourites DC songs. Maybe he's saving all the spare songs for the next album, so he can get it out a bit sooner this time. Still, at least we get that bonus second disc with the deluxe edition, so that's sort of makes up for it.
I was a bit disappointed by Foreverland in the end. It opened so well with the new Napoleon Complex and the magical title track, but the rest was, as you said, crooning love songs. I really wanted the powerful, emotional Divine Comedy passion to kick in, but it never did. :(
I for one thought it was great. Certainly not Neil's best outing, but a very enjoyable one none the less. I personally think the previous two albums were the weakest, so was a bit worried about this one. I was pleasantly surprised by it though. I have to disagree about the lack of passion. As Dougal McGuire said (there's a weird way to open a sentence), "To the Rescue" was a very powerful track. As was "Other People", to a degree. And besides, there's nothing wrong with crooning love songs. That's Neil's thing. But yeah, at least we can agree that the new Napoleon Complex was fantastic. He spent at least six years on that track, so you'd hope it'd be something special.
