God's Favourite Band (Regeneration - Divine Comedy)

Member Name: thevenerablebede

Product:	Regeneration - Divine Comedy
Date:	14/03/01 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see text

Disadvantages: see text

“I wanna play with the big boys,” declares the enigmatic Divine Comedy lead man Neil Hannon on the second track, Bad Ambassador, on their new album released on the 12 March. This sentiment, and the title of the album, Regeneration, can almost be considered as a statement of intent for the band. Forget the huge full piece orchestras and dirty postcard attitude and say hello to 7 slightly stern and unremarkable young men who appear on the back of the album. For this is The Divine Comedy.

Whay do you think of when you think of The Divine Comedy? The fairytale of the Frog Princess? The whimsy of Something for the Weekend? The humour of Generation Sex? The toe-tapping, almost toe curling optimism of National Express? These are the trademark songs of this most eclectic of British bands. Because of their extravagance, witty, penchant for humourous portraits and thundering orchestral arrangements they have been relegated almost to that most cruel of genres: novelty. Their depth has often been overshadowed by the shallowness of the pastiche. This new album moves away from that to a more serious, mature, moody sound. The Divine Comedy have ditched BritFop for BritPop.

This doesn’t mean that the old Divine Comedy is dead. The Divine Comedy has always, I would say, had a great line in tragic, sad and heart rending songs. Any keen listener to A Short Album about Love will see past the bluster, sarcasm and irony to see it is a really a traumatic album about love. But these songs have always taken second place to the “fun” ones. On the new album they take pride of place. Note to Self is song of modern frustration with more than a little of Radiohead echoing in the background. Carried by a persistent, almost irritating guitar riff and understated percussion it roars to a tearing angst ridden “what the f*** is happening?” Lost Property is a touching number listing all the little thing lost over the years, coats, rizlas, sh
oes and uses them as a metaphor for the big things lost in life. “They were mine,” murmurs Hannon, “now they’re not.” The understatement is powerful with the polished music adding to the sentimental ambience. It is demonstrated on songs such as these that the new slimmed down band provides a tight unity to the album with songs sometimes effortlessly merging into the next.

But the old Divine Comedy is far from dead. The playfulness is subdued but the humour, parody, satire and criticism is as raw and real as ever. Throughout the album the lyrics, although perhaps less flowery, have lost none of their power, their quotability. The ability to make you think “god, yes, that’s bang on.” The portraits remain: Bad Ambassador is a veiled jab at the privileged, hooray Henrys and those with means. Perfect Lovesong has all the wordplay of the old days and Mastermind, probably the best song on the album, has the most amusing lyric: Every nose is a vacuum cleaner/ in the loved-up London Arena. What can that mean, I wonder?

I have listened to this album a number of times since it was released on Monday and I love it. There is so much of the wit and penetrating observation that marked the earlier stuff and yet the clothing is darker. The style is more languorous and anxious but the glint in Neil Hannon’s eye is still as bright as ever. It’s too easy to mark the changes in the band but its more rewarding to celebrate the unity and progression. This is a very good album, perhaps a classic. And for the band Regeneration marks their coming of age. It’s time to take the Divine Comedy seriously.

Summary: