The Divine Comedy - Rainy Sunday Afternoon
★★★★
DIVINE COMEDY
Neil Hannon’s enviable gig penning songs for 2024 kids film Wonka was a golden ticket of sorts. His winnings helped finance this full-blown orchestral pop LP made at Abbey Road, while artistically, Wonka part-sated Hannon’s frivolous side, clearing the decks for Rainy Sunday Afternoon’s beautiful melancholy.
There’s ornate, Scott Walker-ish grandeur to The Last Time I Saw The Old Man, written for Hannon’s late father, Bishop Brian Hannon, while I Want You, a darkly potent portrait of all-consuming love, spins cinematic reach from its pensive piano motif. Though The Divine Comedy’s thirteenth doesn’t put away childlike things entirely – outlandish fable The Man Who Turned Into A Chair shares choral DNA with the theme from ’70s TV show Follyfoot – it often feels profound, substantive, built to last. It’s also Hannon’s most personal and poignant album to date.
Rainy Sunday Afternoon is out September 16 on Divine Comedy.
ORDER: Amazon |Rough Trade | HMV
Track Listing:
1. Achilles
2. The Last Time I Saw The Old Man
3. The Man Who Turned Into A Chair
4. I Want You
5. Rainy Sunday Afternoon
6. All The Pretty Lights
7. Down The Rabbit Hole
8. Mar-a-Lago By The Sea
9. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
10. Can’t Let Go
11. Invisible Thread
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