Product Description

The peculiarly packaged A SHORT ALBUM ABOUT LOVE is available as three separate CD singles or as a single box set that contains all three CDs. The album is the musically, lyrically, and conceptually unified effort suggested by the simple and descriptive title. Recorded in New York City and backed by a 30-piece orchestra, the album allows Irish singer/songwriter Neil Hannon--The Divine Comedy's only constant member--to give full rein to his art-pop fantasies. The orchestral arrangements give Hannon's songs the lush romanticism he'd reached toward on earlier albums like LIBERATION and PROMENADE, and his wry, ironic lyrics are particularly well suited for the backing. A SHORT ALBUM ABOUT LOVE recalls Hannon's obvious heroes, '60s cabaret-pop weirdo Scott Walker and the brilliant though deliberately provocative French jazz-pop genius Serge Gainsbourg, as well as more recent pop artists likeMomus, the Monochrome Set, and the Magnetic Fields.

Track Listing

1. In Pursuit Of Happiness
2. Everybody Knows (Except You)
3. Someone
4. Timewatching
5. If
6. If I Were You (I'd Be Through Me)
7. I'm All You Need

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69113 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-10
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Great mini-album from 1997; rarely has a title been so descriptive
A Short Album About Love was Neil Hannon's immediate follow up to the somewhat pompous, almost-rock-opera Casanova; which saw the format shift from lyrical, light-hearted tales of love and autumnal woe of previous records towards the darker, more socially aware concerns of albums like Fin De Siècle and the underrated Regeneration. The sound remains the same, with Hannon commandeering a full, 30-piece orchestra, as well as working alongside the same self-assembled band that would contribute to the two Divine Comedy albums that followed; giving us the repeat line-up of regular collaborators Joby and Ivor Talbot, Pinkie Bates, bandleader Chris Austen and new producer Jon Jacobs, all of whom help to create a swooning, swinging musical backing for Hannon to sing his tales of romance, lost and found.

The record is gloriously performed and produced, using live recording techniques to capture Neil and the band in a completely full-on mode; brimming with energy and exploding with a full-bodied bombast that brings to mind the oft-mentioned likes Scott Walker and Jacques Brel. The swagger and bravado of the orchestration (which is packed with shimmering horns and sorrowful strings) is used to perfectly offset the shades of downbeat melancholia that infuses many of Hannon's wordy lyrics; drawing more on the kind of bleak-desperation and kitchen sink humour made famous by the likes of The Beatles or The Smiths than anything approaching the clean, pop sophistication of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, etc. Some would argue that the concept is far too strange and self-indulgent to work; producing a record of downbeat love-ballads, live and with a full orchestra, but no audience - but as far as I'm concerned, it is pulled off impeccably well by Hannon and his band of merry-musicians. The mood is cohesive in its lulled detachment; with Hannon brimming with emotional-heartache and shimmering-pomp as he once again essays the role of the crooner to great effect. The album opens with the unassuming In Pursuit of Happiness, which many consider to be one of Hannon's best compositions, but for me, it's merely a sumptuous prelude to the six storming tracks that follow...

Everybody Knows (Except You) for example is classic Divine Comedy, and acts as a great introduction to the themes of the record as a whole. As a song, it is certainly a composition cut from the same cloth as some of the songs from 1996's Casanova such as Something for the Weekend or the Frog Princess, with Hannon juxtaposing morose innocence with a wailing libido as he metaphorically confesses his love to the unrequited object of his affections. Next track Someone takes things down a notch, drawing parallels with something approaching Becoming More Like Alfie, with Neil lamenting the kind of guys that get the girls with some great brass orchestration and those always devilishly witty lyrics. Meanwhile, If... has autumnal-like orchestration and lyrics that reference both the Kipling poem and one of Hannon's finest musical moments, that being My Lovely Horse from TV's Father Ted ("...if you were a horse I could ride you through the fields at dawn, through the day until the day was gone, I could sing about you in my songs, as we rode away into the setting sun").

This leads us perfectly into more of that sublime desperation with If I Were You (I'd be through with me), which has wonderful story book lyrics that brim with emotion; with Neil H hopelessly crooning the central refrain, "if I were you I'd ride away, to a pasture new where I could graze, on the green, green grass of virgin country, I'd live real fast and die real young..." before continuing with the kind of bitterness usually reserved for Luke Haines or Elvis Costello, with the closing lines "You see if I were you I'd end my days, in a field of stupid sheep just grazing, the grass so succulent and sweet... If I were you I'd be through with me". Meanwhile, the two final songs, Timewatching (a cover of an earlier DC song from the classic debut Liberation) and the belting and bombastic I'm All You Need, bring the album to a close perfectly.

For me, A Short Album about Love is one of the great records of the last decade, and although it lacks the beautiful, reflective whimsy of Hannon's all-time masterpiece Promenade (one of the greatest records of all-time, in my opinion), it's certainly up there with Liberation, Fin De Siècle and the recent Absent Friends. This is a joyous collection of full-blooded love-songs shot through with a real sense of heartache and performed by an ensemble of musicians who know a thing or to about creating perfect pop. Re-issue it now please, someone?

Peerless witty, orch-pop magnificence
A Short Album About Love is a great title for The Divine Comedys fifth album as it is , quite literally a short album ( It clocks in at 31.58) and every song is about love in all it,s trials tribulations and triumphs. What the album title doesn,t convey is quite how magnificently opulent, stirring, witty and downright enjoyable the album is.

The songs are framed by superbly fluid orchestral arrangements-recorded in New York and recorded live - and sung with real relish by Neil Hammond in his vibrant baritone. What really sets this album apart is Hannon,s exemplary song-writing. There are seven songs on the album and everyone is an absolute masterpiece of drama, fervent emotion, and consummate literacy.

"Everybody Knows (Except You)" is the only song off the album released as a single ,though i feel with the possible exception of the comparatively sedate "Timewatching " -a song from "Liberation" reworked , every song on the album could have been . A glorious paean to unrequited love it revels in lines like " I told the passers by/ I made a small boy cry/ But I,ll get through to you/ If it,s the last thing that i do". Opening track "The Pursuit Of Happiness" has tippling medieval style piano/keyboards and tells us that "I'm not the type to fall in love without good reason" though you suspect maybe he is Incidentally the middle eight was used as the theme for "Tomorrows World" for a short period. "Someone", a plaintive plea for love, has volumous and portentous strings ebbing and fluxing ,counterpoint guitar feedback and one of Hannon,s strongest vocal performances.

"If" changes the tone somewhat with a darker sting in the tail of the song, though some of the lyrics are priceless. " If you were a horse I,d clean the crap out of your stable/ And never once complain ". My favourite is the sublime "If I Were You(I,d be Through With Me)" a song about the idealisation of love where the orchestra blossoms magnificently and Hannon intones deadpan " If I were you I wouldn't need to always read the magazines that I do / That make me blue!". Final track "I,m All You Need" is a fitting conclusion with Hannon exhorting over juddering strings that he is the best option on offer though the lyrics are again slightly arch "Don,t look a horse in the mouth /Don,t let a frog get you down/Dragging you round like a dog on lead".

I never ever tire of listening to this album. Anytime that a song off it comes on my MP3 player is likely to be the highlight of the day (I lead a fairly dull sad existence it must be stressed)Not only is A Short Album About Love an artistic triumph it,s an immensely enjoyable one. It stirs the heart and the head at the same time .It will have you whistling and weeping "..an oddly ignored classic.

without equal
A nonpareil!
Most divine comedy fans might think it's the words that are the best feature. They're sublime but it's the music that is at the core of all their greatness and it's on this that you will realise that.