As far back as Divine Comedy’s debut, ‘Liberation’, Neil Hannon has always been an aristocratic 60 year old in a 15 year old indie kids body. Half deliberate self perpetuated imagery and half intellectual snobbery, Hannon forged a very individual style throughout the boisterously cocky brit pop era and the beer soaked thuggery of Oasis-mania. He didn’t fit in anywhere, yet strangely succeeded. The reason being was simple…. He was just too damn talented. He had an ear for a good tune and a sharp witty pen and by 1998’s ‘Fin de Siecle’, the entire nation was singing, in unison, an ode to our much hated form of public Transport, ‘The National Express’.

Commercially however it did start to go wrong after 2001’s Regeneration. The band split, only for Hannnon to announce that he was continuing to record under the same name and although his grand return in 2004 with the very personally angled ‘Absent Friends’, it was clear that his love affair with appealing to the youth market was over. The cool music press deserted in their droves and he seemed content performing in more artistic, dare I say, ‘pretentious’ surroundings.

2006 and I’m frankly surprised Divine Comedy are still signed to a major. It’s refreshing in a way to see talent has triumphed over record sales, but there has been a noticeable decline in interest. The witty irony’s that brought a wry smile to the face have in main been replaced by sombre elitist subject matter that are often too self indulgent to be appreciated.

Although, ‘Victory For The Comic Muse’, is melodically a little more user friendly, there are moments where it leaps from the beaten track, veering dangerously into nowhere land, dragging a kicking and screaming orchestra with it. As always he provides us with an impressive beginning, ‘To Die a Virgin’, is classic Hannon, lyrically clever and musically exciting,

Other moments of Hannon grandeur are, ‘A Lady Of  Certain Age’, a Parisian sounding Sacha Distel-esque ballad about a once wealthy ageing widow and the song ‘Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World’, which if a bit cheesy and with a knowing nod and a wink to the male population, shares a joke about the complexity of the female mind. These are Divine Comedy gems that you would once find on classic albums such as, ‘Casanova’, and ‘A Short Album About Love’……

…. but all too quickly we are reminded of the scrappy lyrical waywardness and melodic confusion that Hannon is ever more attracted to. Songs such as ‘Count Grassi’s Passage Over Piedmont’ and ‘Snowball In Negative’, see Hannon disappear firmly up his own arse. A slightly bewildering cover of The Associates, ‘Party Thrills Two’, complete with full orchestra hamming it up to the limit does break the album down nicely but what could have been a triumphant return to form has been let down somewhat by some persistent niggles. Having said that I wait with bated breath for his next release…..as always.

7/10

James Heward