The Divine Comedy "Casanova" (1996)
This has a heavy '60s Scott Walker' vibe to it and.... no, in fact
that's probably about the entirety of its vibe... but with Scott himself
having abandoned that sound in pursuit of a more avant-garde approach,
it doesn't feel quite as much like stealing/copying.
The sound is poppy, 60s, orchestral, and a little bit cheeky. Hints of
Serge Gainsbourg, and references to Michael Caine's 1966 film "Alfie"
add to that period feel.
"Middle-Class Heroes" is
pure Walker with the crooning vocal and orchestral flourishes and a
little middle-section cinematic freakout. "Charge" goes from tango to
Latin jazz rock to a kind of subtle jazz groove with vocals mixing from
falsetto to a low rumble, then back into the crazy rock chorus.
Then you hit "Songs of Love"
and you realise "oh wow, that's the Father Ted theme tune" (Divine
Comedy's only constant member singer Neil Hannon had written the theme
tune the previous year and repurposed it as a song here, he also wrote
the song "My lovely horse" featured in an episode of that show).
The album continues its high-theatre vein, wrapping up with "Theme
from Cassanova" the Bacharach-esque tones of which feature a polite, plummy
spoken word introduction. Before ending with the incredibly
Walker-esque "The Dogs & the Horses".
I really enjoyed this album and it is definitely going on my mental
record store watchlist. Hopefully I'll get around to checking out some
more of DC's music after I'm done with the 1001 albums.
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