A Short Album About Love

The Divine Comedy is all of the bets parts of John Hawley with none of the boredom

Neil Hannon is clearly a lovely talented man. I probably wouldn't have this on the list myself, but I'm never disappointed when The Divine Comedy appears on my rotation. "Everybody Knows" in particular is an absolutely glorious piece of wistful pop

How in the actual fuck is this essential listening? The wikipedia article couldn't even find more than two sentences to say about it. This is music made for high school theater kids. They will outgrow it in under a year and be embarrassed they ever listened to it too. God damn this is absolute crap.

Really don't know about this one. Kind of weird, and not really in a good way. Annoying theatrical/cinematic vocals and stupid lyrics. Managed to listen to it more than once out of morbid curiosity to see if any of it would resonate - which it didn't, so since it wasn't awfully awful, I guess it gets a 1.5 rounded up to a 2. Will give it a bonus half point for lyrics referencing horse shit.

I had to listen to this album a few times to solidify my opinion.
It was pretty good. Some songs are very strong (In Pursuit of Happiness), some have a meh start and an amazing end (Someone, I'm all you need), one is annoying but gets stuck in your head (everybody knows) and a few are meh/less than impressive (if, if I were you, timewatching). All around a positive experience but not one that blew me away. Would rather listen to 69 love songs. 3/5

I found this all quite amusing.

But was he in love with an actual horse or what?

I thought I was partial to a soppy love song with comedic twist, I’ve certainly tried to write some myself, but I didn’t enjoy this album. The closest I got was the excellent If… which is the only one which nailed the balance between romance and comedy, with enough focus on the latter to sufficiently undercut and take the curse off of the former. Overall though just too many songs in a row about the same thing that aren’t that funny or entertaining.

A lot less over the top than the other Divine Comedy album we've heard

Never rated The Divine Comedy, never my taste, and this just reinforces that belief

Like if Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, and Father John Misty had a baby together, but not as good.

The music itself is actually fairly top notch but the singing just feels derivative, and the lyrics feel like Father John Misty (especially on If...), but without his weirdness and whit to stop them from feeling dumb.

Throw this on the pile of albums I honestly don't think belongs on the list. Apparently the album's biggest claim to fame (aside from being used as a theme for a British TV show) is being included in the book, so thats the biggest tell to me.

Shocked there are two Divine Comedy albums on this list...must have hit harder in the UK. Nothing I would ever choose to listen to. 1.5/5

The Good: It’s a short album…
The Bad: One would hope that love would get more attention
The Ugly: This is album isn’t short enough, divine enough, and it made me cry…

What a heaping pile of absolute horseshit.

If I would want to listen to music that emulates, in the worst possible way, crappy ‘70s music, I would play crappy ‘70s music, instead of this pile of excrement.

I am seriously starting to doubt the fucking sanity of the author of this list, or his taste… Overlooking some massive albums from the ‘90s, yet including things that are “different” in the hopes that 4 people will actually like it and maybe go visit a show in a bingo-parlor when The Divine Comedy has paid for the right to make us want to gauge our ears with sharp-ended pencils…

Should not come as a surprise that I give this 1*

Why is this in the book

Another great, if a bit odd, product from The Divine Comedy. Not quite feeling the full 5 stars for this one, but very close.

Hieno ääni ja ylipäätään komea kutulevy.

No.

Maybe it's because I'm lying sick in bed, but this Album gave me a nice trip without any drugs 5/5

Ah, a mixed bag overall. Initially I was really on-board with it. I love the musicality. I’m a real sucker for orchestral bits, strings, brass and so on, so that side of things was always going to win me over. I like how optimistic and unabashed it is, and particularly love any grandiose moments of musicality. I fucking love a big soar, me.

And then initially I thought it was super funny about comparing a lover to a horse. For Father Ted fans, he’s someone who’s famously written a song about a lovely horse, but crucially not about being IN love with it – so it’s nice to hear the other side I guess! And then in the next song he keeps going on about grazing on grass… peculiar.

I’ll be honest, I like the silly elements less. Some of the songs are quite affecting, and as the musical bits are done so well it feels like he could achieve something more consistently earnest. The later songs started to slow down a bit and weren’t as appealing as the earlier ones.

3.5 rounded down.

I hadn't heard of The Divine Comedy before. From what I can gather, they are a chamber pop group from Northern Ireland, whose sole constant member is frontman Neil Hannon.

What I will say about A Short Album About Love is that I can accept it for what it is—a farce. Think about it—Neil was able to pen seven songs with various jokes themed around the pursuit of love, with Joby Talbot's orchestral compositions ebbing and flowing in the background. I couldn't help but laugh at some of these lines like addressing the obliviousness of the partner on "Everybody Knows (Except You)" with "I told all of my friends again and again and again/I drove them 'round the bend, so now you're my only friend", or how one of the various allusions the narrator could make to show their affection on "If..." was "If you were a horse/
I'd clean the crap out of your stable/And never once complain." He's taking the piss and I can accept that as the intent.

I wouldn't say this album is all that mind-blowing in its execution, given how prevalent comedy music acts have become since. Plus, I can accept that humor like music is subjective, and not every line will land well. Regardless, I had fun with this album, and it is indeed short as it does not overstay its welcome past half an hour. Give it a shot.

Ambitious orchestral and cinematic a bit like Nick Cave or Tom Waits, but with a 90s indie sensibility. Slow and melodramatic songs with a big crooning baritone vocal. The best songs, at root, are blues piano & guitar based rock dressed up to sound like an opera, the worst ones ditch the rock and go fully orchestral arrangements and composition. Respect for the songwriting and performances, but this really has 0 appeal to me and I can't understand who the audience for this maudlin grindingly dull bloated stuff is? A few good lines though - "If you were a horse, I'd clean the crap out of your stable" - that have enough of a sense of humor to save it from being the most up itself thing imaginable. And the trumpets are pretty cool.

Favorite: I'm All You Need