Aug, 2016
4 Star Review
The Divine Comedy - Foreverland ****
Guests on album number eleven include Wayne the braying donkey.
He won't be on Carpool Karaoke anytime soon, but the sing-along appeal of Derry's Wildean-witted-son-of-a bishop Neil Hannon - aka The Divine Comedy - endures.
Funny, learned and poignant by turns, Foreverland is a masterfully-arranged, part-chamber-part-pop record underpinned by Hannon's natural playfulness. My Happy Place, with its blend of grown-up inease and childlike wonder, is a timely escapist salve for worrisome 2016, How Can You Leave Me On My Own is a cracking, 70s pop-influenced exposé of man-home-alone foibles, and Funny Peculiar, a spry duet with partner Cathy Davey, seems part-Broadway musical, part-Brian Cant and co round the piano on Playaway. Lyrics such as "Got a vigilante/Sleeping in my bed/I looked for Marilyn/Got Che instead", also delight, but you'll need to brace yourself for the abrupt derailing of Other People, an iPhone recording with elegant, after-the-fact strings.
James McNair
Mojo Magazine, October 2016
