‘A Short Album About Love’ by The Divine Comedy

Here’s an album I’ve not properly listened to for a long time. It’s only half an album, really, recorded with a budget-busting orchestra between Casanova and Fin de Siecle, so if I’ve wanted to listen to a Divine Comedy album throughout the years, this has tended to be very low down the list. That said, Divine Comedy fandom often rates this as a career high for Hannon, so it’s worthy of re-appraisal.

It starts magnificently, no question. ‘In Pursuit Of Happiness’ starts small but becomes huge as the Brunei Ensemble pour layer after layer of orchestration over what’s actually a pretty simple tune. Every time a new set of instruments plays, Hannon’s voice swells in grandeur and volume before eventually, the whole song crashes back down to a guitar-only ending. This leads into the far more conventional ‘Everybody Knows’, the albums only single. It’s a nice enough track, but it doesn’t make full use of the orchestration available. ‘Someone’ and ‘If…’ follow. They’re the dense core of the album, full of strings and horns, but a little lacking in joy. I know a lot of people rate ‘If…’ as their favourite Divine Comedy song, but I’ve personally never really taken to it. ‘If I Were You (I’d Be Through With Me)’ has a lighter touch which serves it well. ‘Timewatch’ is essentially a bigger replica of the version released on ‘Liberation’. The key has changed, it’s slowed down slightly, and the sting section is larger, but there are no radical differences. ‘I’m All You Need’ closes the album with the most upbeat track since the first two. It’s actually very simple in terms of structure and lyrics, but it’s soul-lifting stuff, especially the instrumental section. The part where the horns join the strings is one of the great moments in the Divine Comedy back catalogue.

It’s tempting to wonder what would have happened if a full album had been done like this. I imagine it could have filled out nicely, diluting the sombre air which the middle of the album has. The b-sides that were released alongside this album would indicate so – we’ll come to those another time. That said, it could have collapsed under its own weight. Certainly the next album, ‘Fin de Siecle’ threatened to do both of these things at the same time. This still isn’t my favourite Divine Comedy record by a long shot, but it’s worth listening to, and it has some great moments, and you can’t say that about every album.