A great introduction to The Divine Comedy (A Secret History - Divine Comedy)

Member Name: pickles

Product:	A Secret History - Divine Comedy
Date:	12/07/01 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Varied, Inspiring, Brilliant!

Disadvantages: So many other tracks that could have been included by them...

Only a year ago I made the inspired choice to buy this album and now I am obsessed. Completely. Like most people, to me The Divine Comedy meant National Express. When I began to hanker after that song a bit, I noticed they also did Generation Sex and Something for the weekend. These weren't songs that had obsessed me in any great way but that I had heard and liked. That was enough to convince me into buying The Best Of The Divine Comedy - A Secret History.

Once I listened once I realised, as most people don’t before hearing it, that The Divine Comedy also created the theme tunes to Tomorrow’s World and Father Ted. The former has a section of ‘In pursuit of happiness’ as it’s tune while the latter takes a harpsichord solo of the melody to Songs of Love as it’s theme.

But don’t think of The Divine Comedy as a cheesy TV theme band. Just take a look at some of the tracks from the older albums such as The Summerhouse, and Lucy, the latter with words by William Wordsworth, and you will see the other side of Neil Hannon’s song-writing genius.

There is a song for every occasion on A Secret History – the novelty of National Express, I’ve Been To A Marvelous Party (Noel Coward techno style) or The Pop Singer’s Fear Of The Pollen Count – the great orchestral climaxes of In Pursuit of Happiness or The Certainty of Chance – the quirkiness of A Frog Princess or Gin Soaked Boy, and all the other highly individual songs.

That’s what’s great about this album, and what made me want to buy all the previous Divine Comedy albums (I have 2 left to get out of their 7 to date) – there’s a great variety and you can’t hear one tune and know them all. From reading the sleeve notes you see how the band and their ambitions have grown. The first album (Liberation – 1993) featured only the core of the band plus an elite few strings and a french
horn. By 1998 (Fin de Siècle) they were employing a full orchestra (the Brunel ensemble) and the Crouch End festival chorus, with that albums eventually including over 100 musicians.

This album made me obsessed about The Divine Comedy, and I’m not usually an obsessive person. Even if you manage to remain rational about your listening of the album, you cannot regret buying it…

Note: If you can get the Limited Edition then do so – the bonus CD features 18 full tracks and it is a good way to find out what earlier albums you may be interested in.

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