#music from the divine comedy: psychological evaluation

[turquoisemagpie]

‘Subject is male and Caucasian,

Lacking in weight and elevation,

When faced with fear and confusion,

Resorts to romantic illusion.

Cannot to simple equations,

But prone to self-congratulations:

Too soon to draw a conclusion

Regarding human evolution.’

[solo1y]

This is the thirteenth track, called Philip And Steve’s Furniture Removal Company, on The Divine Comedy’s new album, “Office Politics”. and it requires something of an explanation. But wait your turn, Philip And Steve’s Furniture Removal Company, because I’m going through the tracks one by one.

The ostensible theme of this ostensible concept album is how technology and the modern work environment intersect and how lots of people work in really boring, repetitive jobs and we’re all desperate enough to think that this is the best we can do. 

Hannon himself says it’s about “inequality, Brexit and Trump”, but he’s really underselling himself here.

1. Queuejumper

The lead single off the album, and reminiscent of classic, whimsical, bouncy, mid-90s Neil Hannon gold like National Express or Something For The Weekend. It’s about the sort of entitlement you get in modern societies and how annoying it is. Everyone apart from people who drives BMWs will relate. 

2. Office Politics

This track a fairly simple establishing shot for the rest of the on-concept tracks, with a whimsical look at sexual harassment and photocopying body parts. 

3. Norman and Norma

This is a song about a married couple whose feelings for one another peaked during their honeymoon and settled thereafter into a fairly mundane pattern. What could possibly re-ignite their passions...

4. Absolutely Obsolete

An almost on-concept track about a fairly rancorous break-up framed as a redundancy. 

5. Infernal Machines

In this definitely on-concept track, the machines are taking over. 

6. You'll Never Work in This Town Again

The conceit of this track - and Neil Hannon is a man who very much trafficks in conceits - is that you’ll never work in this town again not because you have been blacklisted by your industry, but because the machines are taking over, as you will be aware from the previous track. Which is clever. And the song is great too, as it drifts off into a salsa for some reason.

7. Psychological Evaluation

This track is very reminiscent of Neil Young’s odd 1982 flirtation with a Kraftwerk style, Sample and Hold. Here, a psychological evaluation is carried out by a computer. Bang on-concept.

8. The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale

This track does exactly what it says on the tin, and although it’s not in the style of Kraftwerk, it appears to use pretty much all the background sound effects from the 1973 seminal Kraftwerk track, Autobahn. 

9. The Life and Soul of the Party

Another on-concept track about a guy who thinks he’s great fun at parties, but he’s actually a massive dick. You know the guy he’s talking about. That guy.

10. A Feather in Your Cap

A fairly straight-forward song about a fairly rancorous break-up occasioned by an episode of cheating. Maybe the same break-up as above? I wouldn’t know. Ask him.

11. I'm a Stranger Here

I don’t know what to say about this, but the guy in this song is in serious fucking trouble and someone needs to help him before shit gets out of hand.

12. Dark Days Are Here Again

This is great. We thought we’d seen the end of limitless greed leveraged by regulation-free capitalism destroying the planet during the 1980s. But guess what? Dark days are here again.

13. Philip and Steve's Furniture Removal Company

OK. 

Here we go.

Pay close attention.

Philip Glass and Steve Reich are pioneers in LaMonte Young’s minimalist school of music. Minimalism involves doing the same thing over and over again, maybe with slight alterations, or making it louder or a slightly different key. Which is kind of what all music is anyway, so maybe that’s the point. 

The most famous practitioner of this kind of thing is probably Philip Glass, and his most famous composition is probably Koyaanisqatsi, which was intended to be the soundtrack to a movie, but it turned out that the movie was a videotrack to his music. 

This track opens disarmingly with Hannon recording notes to himself while he’s walking outside. It’s supposed to be the theme tune to a sitcom based around the lives of these minimalist composers, with “many hilarious gags about the repetitive nature of the work”. The many hilarious gags joke is funny on its own, as it appears to dismiss the only reason you’d have a sitcom in the first place, but also the idea of Philip Glass and Steve Reich becoming minimalist composers due to analogies with their previous manual-labour jobs is, again, a wonderful conceit. 

The track itself as a pastiche of The Grid from Koyaanisqatsi, and it does a great job of mimicking the Bolero-style crescendo effect as more melodies are laid on top of each other and a choir pops up in the final act.  14. “Opportunity” Knox

They call him “Opportunity” Knox because, you see, he’s called Knox and he takes advantage of everything that comes his way. Even if he has to “arrange” it. Another track firmly embedded in the concept. 

15. After the Lord Mayor's Show 

This one’s a bit bolshy, highlighting the role of the clean-up crew after any glitzy event. 

16. When the Working Day Is Done

This one’s a lot bolshy. It’s about how capitalism is grinding us all into apathy. There’s a glorious bit at the end presumably intended to be reminiscent of a Russian male voice choir. The whole thing certainly does come off as very Russian, even if the chord changes are still very Our Mutual Friend-era Divine Comedy. 

And that’s it. That’s the album. Sixteen tracks. Great value. Go buy it.

    Chamber Pop

The Divine Comedy is firmly entrenched in a musical genre called “chamber pop” or “baroque pop”, which tends to feature one or more of the following: 

catchy pop tunes

lush, layered arrangements using a variety of instrumentation, from synths to full orchestra

an avoidance of anything you’d expect to find in a mainstream pop song

quirky song titles 

whimsical subject matter

many esoteric references, often, but not limited, to classic literature, movies, art and architecture

a dry sense of humour

a refusal to explain the premise, whatever it might be

The common consensus is that Brian Wilson invented chamber pop with Pet Sounds, but if you like this sort of thing, please check out Ben Folds and Sparks, who swim in very similar waters, and are also fantastic.