Hay fever, car crashes, and Mr Benn... (Liberation - Divine Comedy)

Member Name: Rumblefish

Product:	Liberation - Divine Comedy
Date:	26/07/00 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought-provoking, catchy, witty music

Disadvantages: A couple of stinkers

It tells you something of the kind of band The Divine Comedy are that the first track of their first album ('Festive Road') is a song about the classic kids' BBC TV character Mr Benn. It is hard to believe that Neil Hannon & Co began life trying to sound like REM, because LIBERATION, like most of their work, is influenced by the likes of Morrissey and Scott Walker, and vaguely reminscent to the listener of Britpop stalwarts like Pulp and Blur.

It is a brisk, poppy album - epitomized by 'The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count', a catchy, upbeat single about hay fever, and the vaguely rocky 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair'. Less immediate but more interesting are the ventures into darker, more complex subject matter on songs like the persistent 'I Was Born Yesterday', and the gentle but somehow disturbing 'Your Daddy's Car' (in which the protagonists borrow said vehicle, get pissed on champagne, then crash it more or less out of boredom).

Less successful are the attempts at eighties-style synth-pop on tracks like 'Europop', which seem out-of-place on such a knowingly quaint-sounding album.

Nevertheless LIBERATION was a more than promising debut, and is a good introduction to The Divine Comedy's particular brand of intelligent and beguiling pop music.

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