WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Achilles; The Last Time I Saw The Old Man; The Man Who Turned Into A Chair; I Want You; Rainy Sunday Afternoon; All The Pretty Lights; Down The Rabbit Hole; Mar-a-Lago By The Sea; The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter; Can’t Let Go; Invisible Thread

The loss of a parent is a universal experience but not 1 which pop music usually troubles itself with.

• Read on for reasons including where to see the band on tour in the UK and in Europe 2025/6

Of the 2nd single from this album The Last Time I Saw The Old Man, frontman Neil Hannon explains: ‘My kind and intelligent father had Alzheimer’s for the last decade of his life. A cruel and all too usual punishment these days.

‘The lyrics are a simple and unadorned observation of his final year. No profound statements. No poetry. The music does all the emotional heavy lifting. I suppose sometimes you just have to meet painful events head on. In order to accept them and move on.’

Achilles was a song of the week for us and 1st single from this album and its opener of which we said: ‘Achilles reflects on the greatest of all Greek warriors invulnerable but for 1 unexpected spot on his foot that has passed into common use. There’s even a nod to A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad with its themes of the military and dying young.’

Hannon explains: ”I saw a man this morning who did not wish to die’. So goes the opening lines of Patrick Shaw-Stewart’s 1915 poem Achilles in the Trench. I read a newspaper article about it around the time of the various WW1 centenaries, and was very struck by it. The growing dread of the young classics scholar as he waits to board a troop ship for Gallipoli. ‘Shells and hells for me.”

The video for Achilles (pictured above, watch and listen below) was directed by the band’s long-term collaborator Raphaël Neal who worked closely with Hannon to bring this vision to life.

Neal says: ‘The Achilles music video is probably my favourite work I’ve ever done for The Divine Comedy. In the past, our videos often had a narrative but this time Neil visualised instead a tableaux-based studio video. Some scenes, like the one where the WW1 soldier imagines himself as Achilles, illustrate the song and the original poem. Others take us somewhere else. Yet they all say something about the themes of the song: getting older, reflecting on death and, at the heart of this existential struggle, bravery.’

The album’s final track Invisible Thread is about the bond between a parent and a child offering comfort for those with students leaving for university and an upbeat end to a melancholy album following the jaunty Wonka soundtrack

Hannon says: ‘It’s about that pang of worry when they board the bus for a camping trip. The heart tug when they go on their first date. It’s not as simple as ‘the ties that bind’. They are a part of you.’ Guest vocals on the track come from Neil’s daughter Willow.

Other album tracks include Trump reflection Mar-a-Lago By The Sea and thoughts of childhood wonder in All The Pretty Lights.

The classic Scott Walker and Bacharach influences are present and correct and despite its serious nature Rainy Sunday Afternoon proves a thoughtful and entertaining way to spend time with 1 of pop’s most brilliant songwriters. Join them on their autumn 2025 and spring and summer 2026 UK and Europe tour at the link below.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy The Divine Comedy Tickets
• Have you seen a Divine Comedy show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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