The Divine Comedy 'Bang Goes The Knighthood'

Ah, Neil Hannon. The first time I learned of the man was upon receiving a postcard - with a mail order arrival from Setanta Records - featuring a weedy looking man in a suit, holding an umbrella, standing, trousers rolled to the knees in a stream. It turned out that the postcard was a promo for the wonderful Liberation and I was hooked. That he followed it up with Promenade (Tonight We Fly remains the most thrilling thing he's done, and I can still recall that original grainy video of the tide rolling in and out which accompanied it on its occasional airings on No Disco) was confirmation of the man's Scott Walker-on-a-budget pretensions. In short, good enough for me.
Ah but there the story ends in some ways. His next album was Casanova and it was at this point in his career that Hannon seemed to blur the lines between his art and reality. Chris Evans liked him a lot but the truth was that he'd become the annoying fop he'd mocked on much of Casanova. A series of seemingly contract fulfilling dross followed until Hannon decided to call it a day.
Except, he didn't really. He kept the name and some of the band members and the show rolled on. Absent Friends proved that there was life there yet and Choice Music Prize winning Victory For The Comic Muse (which, if nothing else, paid for a new kitchen) was a slight yet likeable record. And now he's returning once more having hopefully grown tired of the novelty pop, lighting-your-farts-and-laughing-at-it dross of The Duckworth Lewis Method. Bang Goes The Knighthood will be released on May 31st and the band will be playing an intimate show in The Sugar Club on May 7th. Tickets are priced €25 and are available here.
Anyway, here's hoping for the new album but - I'm heading into book by cover territory - if the album cover and song titles are anything to go by, perhaps he's just not listening to Scott Walker any more.

Tracklisting
1. Down In The Street Below
2. The Complete Banker
3. Neapolitan Girl
4. Bang Goes The Knighthood
5. At The Indie Disco
6. Have You Ever Been In Love
7. Assume the Perpendicular
8. The Lost Art of Conversation
9. Island Life
10. When A Man Cries
11. Can You Stand Upon One Leg
12. I Like