Customer Reviews

Casanova

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came to the Divine Comedy by way of Ute Lemper's "Punishing Kiss," on which the three Neil Hannon/Joby Talbot compositions are easily the highlights. I then rushed to buy "Casanova," which turns out to be a slyly subversive, yet genuinely infectious collection of pop tunes that bespeaks such diverse influences as Noel Coward and Scott Walker. Hannon's singing voice is a stylish, honeyed baritone, yet it is his spoken words that first seduce the listener; his lead-in to "Something for the Weekend" is, alone, worth the price of the CD. Among the other tunes, I especially like "Frog Princess," whose sampling of the "Marseillaise" adds another, comic, layer of meaning to its title, and "When the Lights Go Out All Over Europe," with its homage to New Wave cinema of the '50s and '60s and its dig at the parochialism of American film-making ("Paramount was never Universal"). Perhaps it is Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" that Hannon has in mind when he next serves up "Your Daddy's Car." Such subtleties aside, however, what we are left with is the magic of instant pop classics such as "Tonight we Fly," which, in a better world, would take its place beside "Waterloo Sunset" and "Penny Lane" as one of pop's finest moments.

And yet, this gem makes me feel like I have. It's like Neil Hannon invented a brand new sound system, and called it "Eurovision". It makes you capable of catching every melody before the first verse is over. It compells you to follow the sardonic storytelling. It forces you to whistle and tap to the tunes. And then, it begins with what it does best: it surrounds you, gets under your pores, and places you in the middle of that half-lit street, staring at one of the stunning girls at the other side of the window of that coffee shop.

Atmosphere, they call it, and here it explodes. From the laughter at the beggining of "Something for the Weekend", to the horno-graphic climax in "A Woman of the World", going through the double morality of "The Frog Princess", this is love, seduction and a game of push-pull temptation at its best.

Better yet, the album (at least the edition I have does) includes "The Casanova Companion", collecting some songs from previous ones, as well as a couple of unreleased live performances, including a magnificent version of the American Music Club's "Johnny Mathis's Feet". Here, "Tonight we fly" got hold of me. A perfectly crafted tune, which can make you cry on a lonely friday night, laugh with the wind in your hair on saturday morning with the car rooftop down, or find you reminiscing on a sunday afternoon. Kind of a wild card.

Sometimes, there's more to the flat, cold physical appearance of a disc.

And yet, this gem makes me feel like I have. It's like Neil Hannon invented a brand new sound system, and called it "Eurovision". It makes you capable of catching every melody before the first verse is over. It compells you to follow the sardonic storytelling. It forces you to whistle and tap to the tunes. And then, it begins with what it does best: it surrounds you, gets under your pores, and places you in the middle of that half-lit street, staring at one of the stunning girls at the other side of the window of that coffee shop.

Atmosphere, they call it, and here it explodes. From the laughter at the beggining of "Something for the Weekend", to the horno-graphic climax in "A Woman of the World", going through the double morality of "The Frog Princess", this is love, seduction and a game of push-pull temptation at its best.

Better yet, the album (at least the edition I have does) includes "The Casanova Companion", collecting some songs from previous ones, as well as a couple of unreleased live performances, including a magnificent version of the American Music Club's "Johnny Mathis's Feet". Here, "Tonight we fly" got hold of me. A perfectly crafted tune, which can make you cry on a lonely friday night, laugh with the wind in your hair on saturday morning with the car rooftop down, or find you reminiscing on a sunday afternoon. Kind of a wild card.

Sometimes, there's more to the flat, cold physical appearance of a disc.

This is a rather extraordinary CD: a concept album (wait! don't stop reading yet!) loosely based on the life of Casanova, but "set" mainly in modern England. An eccentric, epic, cynical, sad, and lust-drenched record, it stands out amongst the current crop of English Beatles sound-alikes and ambient/jungle/triphoppers. Casanova is odd, manic, meditative, self-indulgent, and very funny. It's also full of good music and great tunes. After opening with two absolutely killer pop songs, awash with hooks, the album becomes steadily stranger and more imaginative, with lush orchestrations, quotations from La Marseillaise, celestas, and lyrics pointing to the emptiness of a life led in sensuousness, but without love ("I don't love anybody, that stuff is just a waste of time/Your place or mine?"). This latter aspect is summarized in the penultimate track, a five and a half minute Burt Bacharach-style instrumental that begins with a BBC presenter list of credits and then builds towards a crescendo that it never quite reaches, fizzling out at the end. Casanova was released in Europe almost 2 years ago, but it still sounds a lot fresher than almost anything else that's around. About a minute into the first track, Neil Hannon (who is the Divine Comedy) lecherously tells two giggling girls "Oh come on, you know you want to" in a horribly smarmy upper class English accent. And the thing is, after this, I do. P.S. Look out for the Divine Comedy's Scott Walker-esque E.P., A Short Album About Love. END

...and Neil Hannon, the genius responsible for The Divine Comedy is certainly one of those people. the term "genius" is not a term that i use everyday in describing the average pop songwriter. but give a few listens to the albums of the Divine Comedy and you cannot help but feel that no one deserves that accolade more. his talent for penning perfect tunes is without question and it's done with such charm and wit and a smug cleverness that just sinks in. if you like really great music (and have a soft spot for some of the more "guilty pleasures" of pop) then you'll find yourself in the clutches of this band and you'll never escape!
Casanova is an amazing recording that still packs a dramatic punch after i've practically worn out my copy from repeated listens. one thing that i love about this band is that they are unashamed about being hopelessly romantics. in an age where loud guitars and grunge ruled the world, real feelings were about the last thing that people were singing about. it was all replaced with disenchanted youth screaming and cold electronica that had a digital blip instead of a pulse. this album's tracks like "Becoming More Like Alfie" and "Woman Of The World" display more hooks that a butcher's convention, and will be stuck in your head for...years!while songs like "Charge" and "Middle Class Heroes" have a distinct flair for the dramatic that actually gets a little *too* dramatic at times (but you still gotta love those cannons in "Charge"...nice touch). the instrumental "Theme from Casanova" is an instrumental gem that shines with a light and airy touch usually reserved for AM radio circa 1960.
overall, Casanova is a great album of wonderfully written pop songs that hold the delicate and the dramatic in perfect balance.

The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon is a true and (mostly)hidden talent. He is by far one of the best songwriters of the century (and as pretentious as that is to say, I really mean it) and his voice is fantastic. 1996's Casanova is a great album to start with for those out there who are curious about the band. With a style that is part orchestral swell and part high brow humor, Casanova will either pull you in, or make you roll your eyes. But that doesn't mean that Neil Hannon writes only funny songs -- just that he knows when to set seriousness aside. "Over the top" instrumentation and tongue in cheek lyrics abound as Casanova takes you to the "women of the world" and leaves you to wonder, "What was in that wood shed?" Truly brilliant.

Put simply, Neil Hannon is a deity of the highest order. Buy this CD just for "Tonight we fly" simply the best song I've heard in, oooooooh, ages and ages. This song seduced my girlfriend, reduced my parents to tears and stayed on repeat play in my CD player for about six months. BUY IT!!!!

This is a CD that must be in every person's collection. It has no faults in it at all. It includes an extract from 'Alfie' and it is wonderful to hear the sound of Michael Caine's voice blended with the tones of TDC. My personal favurites are 'Through a Long and Sleepless night' which is really quite a masterpiece (considering it was made up of leftover bits in Hannon's notebook), 'Middle-Class Heroes' which has a ridiculous truth to the words, and, of course, 'Something for the Weekend' - but that goes without saying. If you have a spare bit of cash and you want a CD that you will never tire of, buy this one. And buy any of their other ones as well - they're all wonderfully clever. P.S. If by any chance Neil Hannon ever reads this I want you to know that I mean every word of what I just said - it is fantastic! Nice one!

Second only to Bridge Over Troubled Water in my all-time album list. This has no faults at all, and he just keeps getting better.

I heard only recently "Casanova" in its whole, after having heard and read that the album is often considered the best from Divine Comedy. I was very excited about the recent Divine Comedy albums such as "Bang Goes the Knighthood," "Victory for the Comic Muse" and also "The Duckworth Lewis Project", so of course I had to get to know "Casanova", too.

At first the album was a disappointment; generally much heavier arrangements, at times almost in musical approach. Moreover the number of really good songs doesn't compare with the later albums. The production also isn't not quite so clear and modern.

Of course, there are really good songs to find. "Something For the Weekend" was deservedly a nice big hit - very catchy melody and spooky lyrics.

"Songs of Love" is pure pleasure in its musical simplicity, after a streak of something heavy tracks. Both "Becoming More Like Alfie" and "The Frog Princess," were single hits, and these also belong among the most memorable numbers.

The complex and dramatic "Through a Long and Sleepless Night" may be a little hard to get hold of, but it actually has a very nice chorus.

I would, though, never choose "Casanova" to present the Divine Comedy to the uninitiated.