Customer Reviews

Duckworth Lewis Method

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This is the best pop album ever...about cricket.
Neil Hannon from Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh from Pugwash, formed The Duckworth-Lewis Method(a complicated set of rulings used to score weather shortened cricket games), and have created a fantastic pop album flowing with lyrical genius and some of the most interesting and beautiful pop songs I've heard since "Spilt Milk", by Jellyfish.
There's plenty of harmonies and such, but it's the melodies and the performances that will have you hitting the play button over and over,

The very start of the album is called "The Coin Toss" and it's gorgeous. I haven't heard a song so short with as much movement and emotion. The Beatles and ELO and Pilot and Queen and, ahhhhhhhhhhh.

"The Age of Revolution" hits next with a great Sparks-esque synth-bass groove over a 30's sounding orchestra loop. Great song about the everyday man taking up his bat and pads to play cricket even though he's not part of the rich and sophisticated crowd who'd been the games players for years.

"Gentleman and Players" starts with beautiful harpsichord and has a very Left Banke feel. Some of the most compelling chords through the chorus bring a lump to my throat. Fantastic song. "Gentlemen and players play Sunday afternoon/Gentlemen and players play- April, May, and June."

"The Sweet Spot" is a rocker : Gary Glitter meets Wings. A sultry womens voice sighs "that's the sweet spot, hit the sweet spot" and over pounding drums and synth bass. Not my favorite song, but it's not bad at all.

"Jiggery Pokery" is a whimsical-turn-of-the-previous-century-sounding song. Mostly a piano and vocal song it's clever lyrics are sung from the perspective of a batter against a bowler(pitcher), and how he's fooled into swinging at a swerving, spinning ball. It's based on a real play from a 1993 Test match resulting in it being called the "Pitch of the Century". I had no interest in the game, but after a near record repeated listening by my daughter(near 4), I became curious and wiki'd cricket and this game in particular. It's a fun song, apparently, or my daughter wouldn't be so enthralled.

"Mason on the Boundary" brings to mind XTC, Beatles, ELO, and The Pearlfishers. Great harmonies and melody. Nice chiming 12-string Ric licks.

"Rain Stops Play"-a short instrumental that paints a picture of a beautiful, sunny day filled with people jostling about holding tall glasses of refreshment having to stop for a bit while the rain passes- all huddling together under blankets and umbrellas.

"Meeting Mr. Miandad" is a song about a famed cricket player calling to the singers to come out to Pakistan to play and hang out. It's the only shuffle on the record and it's a great song. Beatles, Queen, ELO...ahh, you get the idea. The video is VERY Monty Python should one care to visit youtube and look it up.

"The Nightwatchman" and it's slinky "Brother Louis-esque" strings at the end really get me grooving. It also shows off Neil Hannons great vocal range which can reach both sweet falsetto backup's and a very low baritone/bass. A tad gloomy, but still wonderful.

"Flatten the Hay" is gorgeous acoustic pop. I know this is a bit of an obscure reference but if reminds me of "Worthless Heart" and "Russian Hill" by Jellyfish. So calming. Under the right circumstances I tear up with this one.

"Test Match Special" is one of my faves and it's fuzz-octave guitar lick is XTC heaven. It rocks and grooves and is filled with clever lyrics and breaks.
A smattering of 80's keyboards adds a Bowie/Robert Palmer feel. Not in a bad way. Fantastic song that will stick in my head forever.

"The End of The Over" cleverly uses another term from cricket dictionary sang over a 6-count and layered over luscious chords.

The whole album begs to be played as it should: straight through. Sure I have favorites, but honestly, this is the first album from an unknown band that I've purchased and fell in love with in a very long time.
Sorry for the length, but I felt you had to know. It would be uncomfortable to not spread the word on this, my NUMBER ONE album of 2009.

For those of us in America who are waiting for the next ELO or Jeff Lynne project to come along...this might be the perfect way to spend your summer listening hours.

Duckworth Lewis Method is the collaboration of two Irish songwriters, relatively unknown in the US; Thomas Walsh (from the amazing band Pugwash....seek out Jollity and Eleven Modern Antiquities) and Neil Hannon (better known for his brilliant Divine Comedy work including one of my faves, Regeneration and the sampler A Secret History: Best of the Divine Comedy). It is a concept album...a rarity in these iPod days...based on Walsh and Hannon's love for the English sport of cricket...

As an American, I know very little of cricket (it's similar to baseball... though cricket can last 5 days-with breaks for drinks, lunch, tea and sleep as necessary!)But as a pop music fan, I can tell you that Duckworth Lewis Method is an amazing mix of sounds very inspired by ELO, with a nod backward to The Beatles, The Bonzo Dog Band, Utopia and The Beach Boys.

Do yourself a favor and buy this...but do it now...the hooks will grab you quickly and you'll find yourself listening again and again. Standout songs for me were "The Coin Toss"(short opener with gorgeous harmonies...ala Mr.Lynne), "Mason on the Boundary"(Walsh's vocals shine on this ballad), "Gentlemen and Players", "Test Match Special", "Meeting Mr Miandad" and the very wry vocal delivery from Hannon on "Jiggery Pokery"(think Viv Stanshall does Noel Coward).

I can see why the game of cricket would not appeal to my American friends-too slow, no instant gratification, too complex to appreciate without years of apprenticeship and too gentlemanly. However, I know those same friends will thank me for turning them on to a couple of cricket loving gents from Ireland who have done us all a favor by writing this summer's best pop music..."Well bowled, lads!"

This new group is a collaboration between Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) and Thomas Walsh of Irish band Pugwash.

The album is thematically based on cricket, and many inside and funny lyrics come out of this.

Fans of Divine Comedy probably appreciate the album eagerly, because it contains everything of the best of Devine Comedy; melodic and catchy tunes, preferably sung by Hannon himself. I'm not familiar with the music of Pugwash and is therefore obviously not able to judge to what extent the Duckworth Lewis Method is akin to that band.

The songwriting has a lot in common with classic English songwriters like Ray Davies and Pete Townshend, and the mood often comes close to the rural idyll which characterizes the Kinks classic "The Village Green Preservation Society".

Many tracks could be highlighted. Among the most immediately catchy songs you'll notice "Gentlemen and Players", "Meeting Mr Miandad", "Test Match Special" and "The Age of Revolution" .

"Jiggery Pokery" is the music hall style song which sounds very much like a song Ray Davies could have written.

Although the songs are put together in a thematic context, they also work fine individually.

A very exciting collaboration; whether it shall be a one-off thing the future must show. Anyway, a new Divine Comedy album is to be released in spring 2010, so Hannon fortunately has no plans of burying this overlooked "band" just yet.

This collaborative effort between the leaders of the Divine Comedy and Pugwash is a remarkable surprise. The recording transcends the promise of their respective "home" bands and causes Thomas Walsh and Neil Hannon to out do themselves. This is a clever, playful, melodically rich recording. It calls upon the influence of the Beatles, ELO, XTC, Squeeze, to create an original minor pop masterpiece dedicated to the game of cricket. The compositions and arrangements are complex while avoiding being too busy. They are creative while avoiding pretension. If you enjoy clever British sounding (though they are Irish)70's influenced pop-rock you will find this good fun. It will leave you whistling the melodies for days. Highly recommended.

Just listen to a few samples, you'll know IMMEDIATELY if this album is for you. It was, very much, for me. Funny, fun and very melodic.

First off, you don't have to be a cricket fan or know the ins and outs of the sport to enjoy this remarkable disc. Knowledge of cricket will reap fantastic humourous dividends, however. But what this album really offers is a perfect blending of the talents of two of the best living songwriters on the planet, Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh of Pugwash. Both bring their best attributes to the table, there's load of melody, great lyrical zest, and as their alter-egos of Duckworth (Walsh) and Lewis (Hannon), they've created a band that I'm sure everyone that's heard it hopes is not a one-off. Every song could be a single, there's not a wasted moment - from the glitter stomp of "The Sweet Spot" to the languid balladry of "The Nightwatchman" there is a variety of mood that flows in a focused manner - the library music of "Rain Stops Play" (perhaps my favorite on the whole album despite it's short length), the hilarious knees-up fun of "Jiggery Pokery", the head-nodding and toe-tapping of "Test Match Special", the baroque flourish of "Flatten The Hay", and so on...I haven't even mentioned the actual singles either! Hardly a day has gone by in the last year since this album's release without my playing it, and it's one of those albums that seems to go by far too quickly (which makes me hit play and listen to it all again - ha!). The artwork is great too - a nicely designed digipak nicely laid out, and the photo-manipulation of Ducky & Lewis on the front of the inside book is absolutely funny and nearly worth the price of admission alone. This was definitely my pick for album of the year 2009, and here we are with 2010 almost gone and I'm still playing it like it's a brand new release!