Neil Hannon has been recording and touring as the Divine Comedy since 1989 and has tried a fair few flavours along the way, from chamber pop to Britpop, while sounding fundamentally himself throughout. Rainy Sunday Afternoon, however, sounds like a stocktaking, a deep breath and a meditation on late middle age.
Clearly not full of the hormonal rush traditionally associated with classic rock and pop, it is an album that is literate (with nods to both Patrick Shaw-Stewart and Machiavelli, among others) and mature. It is considered and unashamedly oozes a middle-class take on the passing of the years and knowing that more have gone than are to come – which is refreshingly honest in today’s pop world.
The songs are all elegant and cerebral, frequently wandering into a music hall-esque, light opera. Taking in subjects like the loss of his dad, bit by bit, to dementia; stupid arguments with his wife; and his daughter leaving home and spreading her wings. However, they are far from glum and miserable. “The Man Who Turned into a Chair” is a baroque pop song to lost youthful energy, while his mature hymn to love, “I Want You” could easily appear in Nick Cave’s setlist one of these days. “All the Pretty Lights” is a jaunty, Noel Harrison-like reminiscence of a childhood visit to the bright lights of central London and “Down the Rabbit Hole” is a gentle Roald Dahl-flavoured psychedelic trip.
Rainy Sunday Afternoon isn’t all about tales of nostalgia though and “Mar-A-Lago by the Sea” is a humorous poke at the ridiculous crassness of President Tiny Hands and his palace with “All that ostentatious wealth / the pictures of myself” and of “swapping wives for beauty queens” while “entertaining fascist leaches”. Indeed, Hannon’s gentle wit is still very much to the fore throughout and while Rainy Sunday Afternoon is unlikely to ensnare a new audience for the Divine Comedy, it will certainly keep Hannon’s existing crowd more than happy.
