Absent Friends
Despite the song’s pastoral bent, it’s a fresh and enchanting offering; the perfect follow-up to the equally masterly ‘Come Home Billy Bird’.
Tanya Sweeney
Ironically enough for an Irishman, Neil Hannon has always been blessed with an unusually British musical sensibility. The Divine Comedy have always been consistently scholarly, majestic, and somehow polite. ‘Absent Friends’ is timeless, almost Etonian in its bias - from the wry references to Oscar Wilde right down to the polite bell that closes the song. Despite the song’s pastoral bent, it’s a fresh and enchanting offering; the perfect follow-up to the equally masterly ‘Come Home Billy Bird’.
Tanya Sweeney
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2010-03-09
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2007-03-02
Neil Hannon fought off tough competition from the likes of Duke Special and The Immediate to win the second Choice Music Prize at Vicar St, Dublin, last night.
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2007-03-01
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After the relatively disappointing Absent Friends, Victory For The Comic Muse is The Divine Comedy back to their louche, seductive best. This is as good as it gets.
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As the title would suggest, ‘Diva Lady’ sees Neil Hannon return to the flamboyant form that helped make his name a decade ago. Though easy on the ear like much of Hannon’s more popular work, there’s little exciting or lasting about his latest effort. As ever he hands up disposable pop, driven by throwaway lyrics, delivered with his ‘ain’t I clever’ Wildean phrasing.
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Neil Hannon has made arrangements to re-release his back catelogue through his own label Divine Comedy Records Ltd.
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2004-12-02
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If I make impossible demands of The Divine Comedy, it’s the fault of Absent Friends. The album of the year set the bar for the gig of a lifetime. (For which title it would have to go toe-to-toe with Dexys miraculous gig in Vicar St. last November.)
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The boy Hannon can always be relied on to cobble together a cracking radio-friendly tune, and this is gladly no exception.
2004-03-23
The boy Hannon can always be relied on to cobble together a cracking radio-friendly tune, and this is gladly no exception. As ever, Hannon’s honeyed vocals, ambitious production and expressive, masterful song-writing combine to stunning effect, and the result is an enchanting, catchy number that should serve only to consolidate Neil’s national treasure status.
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If you’re like me, then The Divine Comedy 1993-96 was aural El Dorado, the last couple of albums were disappointing, and Absent Friends is the one you’ve been waiting for; the one you were worried Neil Hannon might never make.
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2002-10-01
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