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Rating: In 1600, sacred music was the highest affirmation of this noble art. In 1994, the son of a Northern Irish bishop, and his not-so-successful orchestral pop band released yet another splendid album. Promenade: an album about the sea, a concept album about two lovers and their relationship with water.
There would be much to say about Neil Hannon's project, about his singer-songwriter music, about why a man who should, in many respects, be placed on the highest pedestals of British popular music, so much so that he could comfortably be compared to John Lennon himself, instead finds himself as only the imaginary friend of a minority of people who have had the chance to come close to his music. But in reality, I hope to make you understand the greatness of this Irish singer-songwriter through his third album.
If we consider the career of the Divine Comedy (whose name encapsulates the two fundamental musical themes of this orchestra: the musical elevation to a higher plane and at the same time a great love for the small pleasures of life), Promenade is still a "youth" album. However, it contains the most beautiful track ever composed by Hannon: "Tonight We Fly", which truly encapsulates the message of this band, expressing a flight beyond all judgment and prejudice, beyond the pains of earthly life.
But let’s start from the beginning: in "Bath" our couple decides to go for a bath (an experience always very particular for our cousins across the Channel), which is followed by a bicycle ride expressed by "Going Downhill Fast"; a complex musical experience, a mix between a true song and a sort of requiem. The two then engage in a literary discussion in "The Booklovers", a solemn song with quotes from the greatest British and non-British writers, a tribute to the great authors of the past where text and music intertwine in a single flow of sensations, which intensifies in the excellent finale.
"Seafood's Song" is a musical tribute to gastronomy but we get to "Geronimo": apparently it seems unrelated to the composition, but instead symbolizes the incessant rain that is an emblem of both "ruined opportunity" (imagine a picnic) and rebirth (the green irrigated fields) so characteristic of the bleak British civilization. "Don't Look Down" is the most schizophrenic piece, with syncope oboe and rhythmic guitar. It is the first step toward the much-promoted ascension: our heroes climb high but the fear of falling drives them mad, their only choice is not to look down! And from above they see Europe: the Old Continent where in the collective imagination everything begins; in "When the Lights Go Out All Over Europe" Hannon crafts snippets of European man's life and turns it into a French film rich in romanticism while the band plays a poignant and aristocratic melody.
The two then begin to reminisce about their youth, resulting in "The Summerhouse", where I seem to catch some Beatles quotations: a melancholy, slow song, like an old film. After this song, the girl shows signs of imbalance, intending to throw herself into the waters and succumb to them, the song title is "Neptune's Daughter", the style becomes dark, bitter like seawater—not sad or melancholic, but properly imbued with that perverse malignant justice behind every shipwreck. Can you imagine the experience of being alone in a sea trying to drown you? The Divine Comedy evidently succeeded. Ironically, the girl is saved and to celebrate the two get drunk and sing "A Drinking Song"; the typical Irish pub song where it doesn't matter who you are or where you were born but only how drunk you are! I should point out the embarrassing pronunciation of Horace’s quote: "Dolce et Decorum est pro patria mori".
A song that brings Hannon closer to his homeland.
But like in a fairy tale, the day is about to end and "Ten Second to Midnight" is missing; it seems that our merry-maker is leaving us at the end credits of an exciting story between text and music, instead, here comes right after "Tonight We Fly". There would be so much to say about this piece. It is the culmination of a journey both for the concept album and for the band in general. The two lovers gain the ability to fly and abandon the concerns of the earthly world: the composition is typically baroque and reconnects with the sacred music of the 1600s, indeed. Therefore, we can say that compared to the other tracks it has an almost mystical connotation; so much so that the last fifteen seconds of the album are named: "Ode to The Man".
In short, I tried to make you understand that already by the third album Neil Hannon is not to be considered a simple semi-unknown pop singer, The Divine Comedy, on the other hand, is not a simple orchestra for romantic songs. This album already testifies to a message, a snapshot of the simplest (and sometimes most terrifying) experiences of human life.
And then the music has something hypnotic, I don't think one needs to ask why these melodies are superior to the multitude crowding around them, I have chosen to accept it as a dogma.
I just wonder one thing... what could that glass pyramid behind Neil on the cover ever symbolize?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
06 Don't Look Down (04:48)
"Birds and planes go
Through the rainbow
Every day though
You simply refuse
Old-fashioned Ferris Wheels
Are no big deal
They're just big wheels with chairs
So don't be scared
Just set yourself free"
She tells me it's alright
To open up my eyes
She holds onto my hand
And the clouds float by
The couple in the car below
They wave to us and say hello
I think they understand
The way we're feeling
I don't need to say 'I love you'
When we're floating
So far up above
Everyone else's lives
Are intertwined
With yours and mine
I hope
They find the joy
That we have found
She tells me it's alright
To open up my eyes
She holds onto my hand
And the clouds race by
The couple in the car above
I suppose they think
That we're in love
I think they might be right
And without warning when we're almost at the top
The wheel that turns us all comes to a sudden stop.
The wind that's blown us dies a quick and painless death
The air gets clammy and we hold each other's breath
We get the feeling that we're not alone in this
And then a God who really ought not to exist
Sticks out a great big hand
And grabs me by the wrist
And asks me "why?" and I say
"Well God, it's like this
It may be arrogance
Or just appalling taste
But I'd rather use my pain than let it all go to waste
On some old god who tells me what I want to hear
As if I cannot tell obedience from fear
I want to take my pleasures where and how I will,
Be they disgraceful or distasteful or distilled
And to be frank I find that life has more appeal
Without a driver who's asleep behind the wheel"
Then God decides that he has taken quite enough
Of all this atheistic tosh I'm spouting off
And so he calls upon his favourite angel choir
To sing of times when men were filled with christian fire
But over-zealous angels flap their wings too fast
And cause the wind to blow and turn the wheel at last
And soon my feet are safely back on solid ground
And then I hear a voice say
"Don't look down!".
08 The Summerhouse (04:15)
Do you remember the way it used to be?
June to September in a cottage by the sea
Distant cousins local kids, we climbed every tree together
And it never ever rained 'til we got back on the train that would take us so far away
from the village and the bay
And the summerhouse where we found new games to play
Do you remember sunday lunch on the lawn?
Daring escapes at midnight and costumeless bathes at dawn
You were only nine years old, I was barely ten
It's kind of weird to be back here again
Do you remember?
The Summerhouse
My Summerhouse
Our Summerhouse
12 Tonight We Fly (03:01)
Over the houses
The streets and the trees
Over the dogs down below
They'll bark at our shadows
As we float by on the breeze
Tonight we fly
Over the chimney tops
Skylights and slates -
Looking into all your lives
And wondering why
Happiness is so hard to find
Over the doctor, over the soldier
Over the farmer, over the poacher
Over the preacher, over the gambler
Over the teacher, over the rambler
Over the lawyer, over the dancer
Over the voyeur,over the builder and the destroyer,
Over the hills and far away
Tonight we fly
Over the mountains
The beach and the sea
Over the friends that we've known
And those that we now know
And those who we've yet to meet
And when we die
Oh, will we be
That disappointed
Or sad
If heaven doesn't exist
What will we have missed
This life is the best we've ever had
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