The Divine Comedy - "Rainy Synday Afternoon": Their new release

    Announcing the 13th Divine Comedy album - and first for six years - Neil Hannon stated: "Everyone should get to make an orchestral pop album once in a while. It should be available on the NHS."
    Hannon isn't wrong, but there's a slight question mark on how much Rainy Sunday Afternoon qualifies as "pop". This is up there with his most cohesive albums, but it's one where pace loses out at the expense of melancholy, with only the abandoned Down The Rabbit Hole upping the tempo significantly.
    Hannon has also said that his "silly" songs had been used up on his soundtrack of Wonka, so The Divine Comedy's more whimsical side is reserved here for The Man Who Turned Into A Chair, a morality tale of laziness set to superficially easy listening backing vocals which soon turn sinister. All The Pretty Lights has a certain jauntiness to it but, maybe because of that recent Hollywood dalliance, resembles a theme tune without a film.

    Of the record's slowest songs, only Mar-A-Lago By The Sea doesn't come off, its Bontempi minimalism seemingly designed to highlight Hannon's lyrics at their most contemptuous, as he decries Donald Trump "entertaining fascist leeches." Smart words, non-existent song.
    The title track is similarly a despairing reflection on world politics, but its keyboards are fuller, unusually reminiscent of Billy Joel in their gentle bounce, as Hannon tentatively hopes for better from our leaders.

    Having recently married his long-term partner, fellow singer Cathy Davey, / Want You is a classic Hannon ballad as he pointedly sings: "Some people want to build a rocket ship to satisfy their dreams/ Some people seem to want it all/ But I want you" over ruminative strings and contrasting twinkly piano, while Invisible Thread is another in the long line of soaring, uplifting The Divine Comedy album finales. So Hannon is properly back, the setting is lush, but this is careworn melancholia, not necessarily pop music.