NEIL Hannon is more than a whimsical smart ass or a Noel Coward for the modern age of cynicism. Not content with simultaneously penning a musical, a film score and an album about cricket under the name of The Duckworth Lewis Method with fellow Irishman Thomas Walsh, he has crafted his tenth Divine Comedy album.
It is at its best when he plays a straight bat, rather than the old default position of the over-saucy Assume The Perpendicular and the plain silly Can You Stand On One Leg. He pulls off romance in the Rufus Wainwright mode on Have You Ever Been In Love, recalls the most moving Gallic pop in Neapolitan Girl and captures diffident young love in At The Indie Disco.
Better still are his two state-of-the-nation addresses The Complete Banker and Bang Goes The Knighthood, each devoid of the moralising of the Daily Telegraph but in tune with today’s foibles.
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