The Album Club: "Casanova" by the Divine Comedy
 

The Divine Comedy - Casanova (1996)

http://www.mojo4music.com/media/2014...ova.jpg?9ab822

I don't enjoy the caroony vocal delivery. He constantly sounds as if he's forcing his voice to sound deeper and more Roy Orbison-like than it really is. Like he's doing a parody of said singer.
It has the unfortunate side effect of making it all sound like a comedy album (no pun intended).

Too much of a Tom Jones/Las Vegas entertainer vibe to this. I feel like this should be playing to a crowd of tasteless rich people on a cruise ship.
The strings sound phony and sterile and the music is in general just too bloodless to leave any impact on me.

It's not the type of music that bothers me, it's specifically how lacking in personality and flavor this album is. I find it generally agreeable, but I hope the artist has some other albums that demonstrate his creative vision and skills better.

I feel a bit bad for crapping all over this album, but it hits several pet peeves of mine in a bad way. It kind of exemplifies an artistic sensibility that I'm very
much looking for the opposite of.



Further silly nitpicks
- In one track, he's whistling out of tune.
- In some tracks, he's sort of acting out lines while half-singing, and it doesn't work at all. Especially not where he's sort of affecting a fake laugh.
- I've complained about the fake sounding strings already, but I hate them so much by the end of the album that I'm complaining about them again.
- Both the drums and the bass are so utilitarian in nature that they do almost nothing to add to the experience.
- Due to the prancing and posturing and occasional attempts at a seductive sort of persona, I feel like he's a poor man's Bryan Ferry at times.
- The generally overproduced, flat vibe of the music really makes the 50+ minute run time drag.
- His falsetto is allright. The deeper he tries to sing, the more unconvincing it sounds.
- Spoken word passage around the 41:00 mark is not funny or interesting.
- Said spoken word passage is followed by a track that sounds like the intro to a boring British soap opera.



Listened to: 1.0 times. I can't stand another round of this. It makes me miss previous week's album.

Rating: 3/10, which makes me realize I was way too hard on the Hiatus Kaiyote album.

http://nyc.barstoolsports.com/files/...2/PM225001.jpg
:(

Didn't know it was your pick! I have to go with my first reaction and damn, I wanted to like it, but it just really started grating on me as it went along.

If it's any consolation, I'm finding much more to like in your music journals. It annoys me that I lost the link to a specific one that the Batlord referred med to a while ago. It had reviews of AOR and other very 80's sounding rock/glam. I was going through it page by page, but now I can't find it again and as it turns out... you have like a million+ journals! :laughing:

You mean this?

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...r-journal.html

And can we please shoot our search function in the head? I'm sick of it telling me that it excludes short words (LIKE ****ING "AOR"!) from any search. What even the **** is the point?

No, but I'm going to find it useful anyways.

It turns out it was this one:

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...reviews-2.html

There's more than AOR in there, but I just remembered some of the 80's cheese cover art. I had to go through the journal index, manually searching on Trollheart's name until something rang a bell.

It's not the first time I end up having difficulties or even being unable to find a thread again on this site :laughing:

That's ok: at least you listened to it. It would be a dull club indeed if we all liked every album selected. Hannon uses that kind of affectation a lot; I guess it's something you either like or don't like. You should still check out his previous two albums, Liberation and Promenade, which you might enjoy more. Also A Short Album About Love, though it does follow the same kind of pattern as Casanova...
Thanks. Glad you're enjoying them.
yeah, I used to carry a link to all my journals in my sig, but then I stopped doing them completely so took the link out. The index also has not been updated in a while, but if you need it here it is
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...something.html


Very much agreed. It doesn't even matter if you put them in quotes, as far as I remember. Stupid system, however don't expect anyone who can do anything to listen.
Ah yes: one of my favourites. You should have just PM'd me. If you're looking for something in future that I wrote and you can't find it, let me know.

I'll try checking them out, but there's definetely no guarantee I would like them any more than the one I heard. If it's at least something a little different, there's always a chance.

Allright, duly noted :) It's all bookmarked in my MB folder now so I know where to find it again.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...C_Casanova.jpg
My first selection for the club was very well received, but it was something of a hollow victory, as it were, for me, as the album was not my own choice and had been suggested to me by bob, so I was unable to react to all the positive comments with a knowing smile and a smug grin. Whether this will happen with this, my second choice, is anyone's guess (probably everyone will hate it) but at least this time this is an album I was listening to before even joining here. Originally I had no idea who or what The Divine Comedy was, outside of Dante of course, but a workmate got me interested when she told me “It has the song from Father Ted on it.” Now, I had enjoyed that show and liked the music, so I thought hell, it'll probably be that one song and the rest crap, but I'll give it a go. About seven spins later I was in love with the album.

Certainly among my favourite DC albums, Casanova plumbs the depths of human emotion from top to bottom, from the bright and breezy silliness of “Something for the weekend” and “A woman of the world” to the sweet innocence of “Songs of love” right down to the bitter humour of “The Frog Princess”, and on into the incandescent fury of “Through a long and sleepless night”, finally ending with the resigned and melancholic acceptance of death in “The dogs and the horses”. It's not a perfect album by any means, and there are songs on it I don't care for, but as a cohesive work it's certainly at the top of the tree. Neil Hannon, for those who don't know, is The Divine Comedy: he writes, composes, arranges, performs and produces all his music, using band members and session players for each album. This, and the followup A Short Album About Love saw Neil enjoy some brief, if deserved, chart success, but he's not really about the singles, and you have to dig deeper to get to the real music of the man who is The Divine Comedy.

Note: as I know this album well, some of the questions in the matrix will be superfluous for me, so I'll be ignoring any that don't apply.

1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?
n/a
2. What did you think of the opening track?
Love it: you think it sets the scene, and it kind of does, but the album gets much deeper and more emotional. It's a good opener though.
3. What did you think of the next track?
Not crazy about this. A bit weak I feel, even if it was chosen as a single.
4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions? (see note 1)
I love Neil's cultured, pretentious-sounding voice. He has a way about him that just draws you into the songs.
5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not? (see note 2)
Yes, I like the music, and also the fact that there are so many styles used here
6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
n/a
7. What did you think of the lyrical content?
Mostly quite clever, plays on words and so on (“The casualties of casual sex”) but sometimes I feel he tries to be a little too clever (“Charge”) and it doesn't quite work.
8. Did you like the instrumental parts? (see note 3)
Mostly, yes
9. What did you think of the production?
Insert answer here
10. Did you know of this artiste prior to listening to the album, and if so, did that foreknowledge colour your perception of this album?
Originally, no: as mentioned above, this was the first DC album I listened to, and beyond knowing he did the music for Father Ted I knew nothing of him. Now, of course, I'm very familiar with all his work, both post and prior to this album
11. Is this, generally, the kind of music you listen to or not?
Kind of not really, but I really do like it. It's quite poppy in places, orchestral in others, with as I said a lot of different styles used
12. Assuming you listened to the album more than once, on repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?
n/a

13. What would you class as your favourite track(s), if you have any?
“The dogs and the horses”, “Through a long and sleepless night”, “Songs of love”, “A woman of the world”, “Something for the weekend”
14. And the one(s) you liked least?
“Charge”, “In and out in Paris and London”, “Becoming more like Alfie”
15. If the album in question is a debut, did that fact allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated? (see note 4)
n/a
16. Are you now looking forward to hearing more from this artiste, if you have not heard any of their other material?
n/a
17. Were you surprised by your reaction - positive or negative - to the album?
n/a
18. Did the album end well?

Beautifully. You couldn't have a better closer than the sumptuous orchestration of “The dogs and the horses”, and the fact that the album opens with the word “Hello” and ends with “Goodbye” is perfect symmetry.
19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?[/B]
No
20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?
I feel it hung together very well, following the various human emotions and exploring love and sex and commitment from every angle.

A solid 9/10 for me.

Oops. I thought the name of the artist was Casanova and the name of the album The Divine Comedy.

I actually really expected this album to be appealing to me to some degree, just based on the cover artwork. Turned out to be the one thing I did like :/

No comment?

I can't wait to **** all over this album.

I've never really any opinion on production. I can tell very bad production, and kind of overproduction to an extent, but other than that, I don't notice it and it doesn't bother me or factor into my enjoyment of the album. I just put that question in cos I know most of you like to rant on about production being "sterile" or "organic" or whatever. Don't matter to me.
You probably don't even have to listen to it, right?

The cover certainly tells me a lot of things but I'll listen to it, I guess.

Gee, thanks.

I always notice things about the production - like how clear/muddy it is, or how much low end/high end there is to the instruments, how layered and how vibrant sounding the instruments are, etc. I don't like talking about it from too technical an angle though. Discussing Dynamic Range mesurements is a bit too far into audiophile territory, even for me.

I'm gonna have to get in on this too.

The Album Club: "Casanova" by the Divine Comedy
 

If this is allowed, if there are no objections, all future posts pertaining to the album above should be put here. Thanks.

Songs of Love is an acceptable song.

The rest of it is basically like Frank Sinatra. If Frank Sinatra was a talentless hack. And retarded.

One star.

The Divine Comedy - Casanova

An interesting album in some respects, fusing pomp and Britpop and musical theater into a concept record that covers a variety of moods and ideas. To these ears, Freddie Mercury, Peter Hammill, Frank Sinatra and Gino Vannelli are the obvious reference points in regards to Neil Hannon's approach to performance, though I can say with confidence that he's not anywhere near those guys in sheer vocal power (Mercury, Vannelli) nor in lyrical imagination (Hammill, Sinatra). He also sticks a little too close to the Tim Burton / Danny Elfman school of theater rock which is a mark against him for me.

Going through the songs here was a bit like skipping stones: every once in awhile I'd get a good throw in and find something I liked (' In & Out of Paris And London', 'The Frog Princess') where an early Scott Walker-esque pop sensibility comes to the fore and works well. When he isn't hitting on all cylinders though...the whole album falls apart, especially when he gets twee and goes full Broadway ('A Woman of the World', 'The Dog & The Horses', etc.).

So, I can accept someone like Freddie Mercury in full pomp mode because he really sells a croon. Dude was untouchable in sheer theatricality. Or, to use a living example, I can also accept Gino Vannelli even at his most pompous cause the guy has a six-octave vocal range and a band on par with the Mahavishnu Orchestra backing him. The people that play with Gino when he's in Vegas or up in Montreal are demigods in the jazz-fusion world. Sir Hannon, unfortunately, is a few notches below the masters. I'd have to go sit down with his other Divine Comedy outings to see if he got better or worse than this as time went on.

6.5 out of 10

That really describes his style well for me.

Freddie was really good at being ridiculously over the top but somehow still not too much.

Ok now I'm curious to see what the final few comments on the album will say.
We've got a top score, a bottom score and one in the middle so far.

Starts off with some solid drumming that makes me think I might not hate the album. Song progresses and outs itself as pretty straightforward pop stuff. Second song sounds like Mike Patton being ironically schmaltzy as he fronts cake. The song also perpetuates rape culture. Third song is straight gouda. Fourth song has me wondering how people can sit down and pop this album in. It'd make sense to listen to if it came on the radio, but to listen to it on your own volition? That mindset towards music reflects a dark corner of humanity.

He weirdly reminds me of Carl-Michael Eide, but if he had decided to do some bland crap. Charge starts with 15 seconds of silence so SKIP! That's not music. Songs of Love tells me that this guy is boring as **** in bed. I skipped Frog Princess because starting a song with "I met a girl" gets you nowhere with me. I can't wait for this **** to end. Through a Long Sleepless Night is a little more heavy than the rest of this featherfooted record. God his falsetto is awful. **** this album I'm done.

This is very tepid and safe music. I can see why TH would be into that, but it's not for me. 1/10

Should I add a poll?

Ouch! I really thought my negative reaction would be in the minority. If there's any people sitting on a more positive take, maybe now would be a good time to chime in before Trollheart jumps off a bridge :laughing:

A poll would probably be fine. Since people still have to actually write something to get their own album on, I'm guessing it won't tempt people to just vote instead of writing. Not anyone who was going to write something, anyway.

Anteater is a tepid and safe music connoisseur and he only gave it a 6.5/10, that should tell you a lot about the album :D.

I like a lot of tepid and safe music too, so shouldn't I have loved it then?
I'm not sure the math on this one checks out.

I guess you can add a poll, but I wouldn't accept just voting for an album as being necessarily contribution, vis a vis keeping your own album in the list. I'd still want some sort of comment on it if not an actual review. I suppose it would show at a glance how an album went down with the majority.
The Kickstarter address is....

I'm not surprised you all hate this album, but you know, **** you all. I hate you anyway so who cares? :p:

Adding the poll is up to you, TH. If you do want me to do it, should it be out of ten?

No, I'd say just "Great, good, okay, terrible and meh" or something like that. A lot of people don't like rating albums so I think a general overall impression would probably go down best. I'd say do it, see how it goes. Could be a very good idea.

Oh, I should point out that in general people here seem to hate my music taste anyway, so I don't expect any other reaction than the one I'm getting, and I don't give a single ****, never mind two. It's cool to **** on my taste so if it keeps them happy what do I care? Doesn't change my mind a single iota and it won't stop me listening to the music they all hate. Ant has been the kindest so far, and I reckon will end up remaining the only one who even gave this album any kind of decent rating, but hey, you know, Hi I'm Trollheart.

I like a lot of stuff that isn't yacht rock or smooth jazz tho. Get gud bruh.

It isn't a bad record really: I'm just a schmaltzmeister to the point where its hard to impress with me with schmaltz unless its got a little extra zing to its zang.

I have a feeling there's going to be many records in the album club over time that don't exactly go over well with the majority in here. At least you had the balls to choose something that doesn't attempt to pander. I feel like my own pick, while a really good album, isn't exactly the most honest expression of what my tastes are really like. If I didn't try to be so diplomatic, I'd have chosen something far more likely to go down in flames.

I wouldn't say so either. I just really don't like it personally. If I had to judge it more at an impersonal distance, I'd say it's clearly competent, creative and has a vision of it's own. It's just that the way it achieves all that grates on me :laughing:

Meh, it doesn't matter what I pick, they'll hate it anyway, so I may as well pick something I at least like. And you can change your pick if you so desire.
You'd be surprised indeed at how little that helps. :)

Ja The Black Ryder went down like an iron blimp.

That wasn't my album. I meant one of my own.

...you're The Divine Comedy?

I find the vocalist annoying. Theirs a Bono like personality I'm getting from him that just makes me want to punch him in the face. The music doesn't seem to offer anything interesting.

Initially I was leaning towards a two and a half stars, but he more I listen to it the more I loathe the album. The music grates on my nerves more and the singer becomes more annoying.

I will say that "A Long & Sleepless Night" had some pretty good moments. I can live without this album in my life.

☆1/2

Yeah, didn't you know?

*there's
:p:

Not hearing the Bono comparison at all.

Allright, I think I'm going with the Dir En Grey album Withering to Death. It's one of my all time favorite albums and I expect it to go over about as well as the bubonic plague. Seems like a perfect choice!

It all begins to make sense now, huh?
Nor me. Hannon's vocal style and delivery couldn't be further from that of Bono. You might as well say Shane MacGowan sounds like Bono. Think it's just an "Oh he's Irish and I hate him therefore Bono" line of reasoning.
I'll change it in the OP when I can be bothered. :)

He's exactly like Bono in that his singing is about a million times less inventive and interesting than he thinks. Maybe it's an Irish thing.

This is basically what I'm talking about.

I was comparing their personalities that I got from the music. Not their vocal delivery or voices.