All the Pretty Lights

The fourth track taken from our UK Top 5 album ‘Rainy Sunday Afternoon’ is the wistful tribute to Christmas past, ‘All the Pretty Lights’ which can be streamed here.

Neil says: "It began with the title (I liked the sound of the words) and a scrap of melody. That title brought to mind my family’s visit to London in the late ‘70s. To be a 7 year old in London at Christmas was like being in Mary Poppins. Utterly magical! These memories are a bit garbled and possibly enhanced with age, but the song is as much about the fallibility of memory as about nostalgia for Christmas past."

The gorgeous animated video that accompanies 'All the Pretty Lights' has illustrations by long term Divine Comedy collaborator Mathieu Persan and animation by Maéva Pensivy. Watch the video on our YouTube channel.

Mathieu explains the process: "We wrote the script to match as closely as possible the very moving lyrics and the emotion—sometimes bittersweet and tinged with nostalgia. Neil wanted a classic mid-century aesthetic, so I drew inspiration from the great illustrator Miroslav Šašek to recreate a childlike and joyful world. Maéva then created the animations, inspired by the wonderful Hanna-Barbera productions, to bring the images to life and give them a fresh character. The result: a colourful and cheerful little film that looks as though it came straight out of the 1950s."

Neil adds: "Mathieu and Maéva’s video is a thing of beauty and wonder. We share a love of classic 50s graphics, and this seemed a great opportunity to fully inhabit that world."

'Rainy Sunday Afternoon' is out now and we kick off our European tour in February! Please click here for a full list of live dates and ticket links.

Photography by Kevin Westenberg.