A Short Album About Love

I tried, but I really couldn't get into this. It had no appeal to me in any way.

Not my jam

Not for me

Just don’t like his voice. I’ve tried.

I have never heard of this band and had zero expectations. Unfortunately, it is one of the worst albums I've ever heard.

It never made me care about anything he sang.

made me irate

This feels like They Might Be Giants met Jonathan Coulson, went to England and wrote the wackiest lyrics about love they could come up with, and then performed with an eye rolling, muscle pulling, wink as Frank Sinatra for hipster chamber pop, but demanded to be taken seriously, even though the word Comedy is right there in the band's name. Not funny enough to be funny and not serious enough to be taken seriously. Just more terrible Nick Cave-ous stuff. The Divine Comedy feels like an acquired taste that I cannot seem to acquire. Or an acquired disease I need penicillin for. I understand what they are doing, but it just seems like a pointless exercise in juxtaposition and irony. "If" is an uncomfortable creep fest. It's like Hannon heard Radiohead's "Creep" and said "Here, hold my tea." The difference being that I think Cannon is trying to be earnest. Not here for the Schmaltz. What circle of hell am I in? This is another one of those albums that makes me feel like we are being trolled by the list maker.

Really unlistenable, just not my style at all

Seriously, a second bizarro album from this artist? Art thou sane? Or you trying to drive us crazy?

I can’t stand this stuff.

Icky

I did not enjoy this album. I am glad it was short. It was like Frank Sinatra, but not as catchy. Also, not in the 50s, this album is from 1997! So many greats in this decade, and this album is not one of them. Favorite Song(s): N/A

Insipid music

Not for me. Couldn’t get past song #2

"The friend who claims he can sing who had enough cash to hire an orchestra - The album". Sounds very dull and boring.

Neil is talented as a lyricist, but I find the music boring and moaney. This album is better off on someone else's shelf than mine.

You didn’t miss anything with this one. Move along

Not a fine of the guy’s lounge singer voice.

No thanks

Tarkoituksella awkward sanoitukset haha hauskaa.. Vituttaa vaan kun ei kunnolla hauskat kun pitää keskittyä rakkausteemaa eli tulee semmone paskasekotus joka ilmesesti haluttu saada aikaan melodiat täysin samaa koko 36 minuuttia hohhoijaaa.. Hauska näinhän se menee rakkausalbumeissako heh.. Ensimmäisen ironiakerros annetaan ilmaiseksi eli heh ei olekkaan perusrakkauslaulu eriskummaliset sanat hahah awww... rakkaus.. Toinen ironiakerros pitää katsojan yrittää löytää päänsä sisältä. Hän voi esimerkiksi ajatella että albumi pilkkaa rakastavaisia jotka kuuntelevat albumia ja naurahtavat välillä kun tulee höpsön söpö lyriikka.. Tämä ei kuitenkaan ole tarpeeksi cope... Sen takia tarvitaan kolmasironiakerros, harmillisesti tämä kolmaskerros, vaikka olisi ihan hauska konseptualisoida päässä, ei riiittäisi tekemään tästä albumista mitään spesiaalia niinkuin esim röökiä vetänä albumi jossa jo toinen ironiakerros ylsi viiteen tähteen. Korkeampien ironiakerrosten tutkiminen voi olla tarpeellista mutta on todennäköistä että tästä albumista ei voi tarpeeksi älykäs ihminen nauttia...

Really not my thing

This ain't it, I certainly appreciate that it was a short album about love. Such lame lyricism god damn. 1.5/5 Fav track: If I were you

Drek.

Fuckin yuck

Complete garbage. At least it was short

Not even funny, just toxic. And a symphonic orchestra cannot save lackluster music. This makes me lose hope for humanity.

Could not find any joy with this one.

Nice but sooo boring

This was like a parody of… something bad.

AJ: I like the album title. Strings and horns sounded good. This mostly sucked. There are more than a few “what the fuck did he just say!?” lyrics. Some had me questioning if it was some botched attempt at a comedy album. I don’t get it at all. Wikipedia called it “baroque pop.” Who’s fucking idea was that? I am not a happy burger. Cat: this sounds like the soundtrack from a one man off Broadway musical

Blueh, noiosi

Hard pass.

unbelievable that these bozos got two albums onto the list

The best part about this was that it was the shortest album I've heard so far on this 1001 list. Good god was this a difficult listen. Crap lyrics and some of the worst singing ever - it reminded me of something who thinks they can sing like Sinatra except they're a 2 time divorcee doing karaoke at his local bar trying to pick up chicks half his age. How did this group win a record contract!? 2/10.

Reading Stevie's review informing me there are no other James Brown albums on this list at the same time that I start listening to this one is not a good combo. In fact, it's a recipe for disaster. I don't think I would have given them even 3 stars but I sure as hell won't be now. This wasn't a great album and I found it boring, and now wanting compared to a JB album.

Dunce of an album. Bland, boring, forgettable. The spiritual successor to that really lame baroque pop Scott Walker album that I couldn't stand. It's an unearned attempt to make a Frank Sinatra's "My Way" seven times in a row. Never heard of this group (or guy, if it's a Tame Impala situation), but I certainly don't think I was missing much. British bias to the maximum degree here, replace this shite with a James Brown album ASAP. Soundtrack of a man refusing to die. Favorite tracks: If... Album art: Based on this cover/title, I had high expectations. It looks cool and mysterious, and it suggests an inspired concept. The music is just so lame. 1/5

Comedy or not, comedibly bad from my perspective

so awful and terrible it was like hearing the only straight man in your high school theatre department wax poetic about his horrid love life. God I wish I could give it a 0/10

Oh no, not again. First time I ran across this fucker on the list I was too nice and gave him a 2. We'll, today you're getting a 1 my man. Not because it's an entirely unlistenable monstrosity - that would be much more interesting - no, it's because it is an emotionally disingenuous piece of mediocre melodrama. Just shameless watered down Scott Walker. And, and, and... It simply does not belong on the list. Just look at the skeletal Wikipedia entry for this one, it tells you everything you need to know: nobody gives a shit. This had goddamn well better be the last time we meet here Divine Comedy. The fact that you are taking up 2 spaces on this list, while Neutral Milk Hotel doesn't even get one, is preposterous.

Wasn't short, didn't feel the love, nor did I get the humor 1 because it was music

1.5 So, his schtick is he does a poppier, strings-heavier take on Sinatra? But coupled with some of the worst lyrics I've ever heard? "If you were a horse I'd clean the crap out of your stable And never once complain" What? Apparently there's room for filler in a list of 1001 greatest albums of all-time. This album is musically mediocre and lyrically painful, and I'm really not sure why this is something I "must hear before I die". On to the next one.

yeah idk tbh, dece sunday tho

I can hear how good he is but I'm just not too into crooning or whatever the right term is for this style of music.

What a bunch of nonsense. I thought that this was satirical halfway through the first listen as this was just too ridiculously bad. On the second listen it was pretty unbearable hearing how dumb the lyrics were. There are some albums that may make sense being on this list even though they aren’t the most enjoyable. This one did not seem to have any importance. 1.8/10

boring

The "crooners with a dreary orchestral background" genre is the last genre that needs to be revisited. Overall I wasn't a fan of the 60s / 70s recordings that were this style. I do enjoy some of those older recordings where the singer was something special but this genre got very tired by the mid 70s and Burt Bacharach et al. were handed their fedora and shown the door. By the late 90s the genre went from being tired to being boring.

Not my style

Too mellow

What a snooze

Tego jeszcze wyspiarze nie grali, popowy album w aranzacjach orkiestrowo synfonicznych, czyli takie brytylskie rubiki, tylko ze klaskania nie ma, ale za to sporo innych dzwiekow przewija sie przez ten krotki, nie tylko z nazwy album o milosci, bo material to 31 na 7 trakach, daj slabemu spiewakowi 20 osobowa orkiestre za plecami a i tak nadal bedzie spiewal o jakis milosnych glupotach, dawno zaden album mnie tak nie znuzyl w tak krotkim czasie, na plejke nic nie leci, bo stawialbym w ten sposob mine losujac traki

Skipped through it. All pretty dull to be honest.

Clearly Neil Hannon is nostalgic for a bygone era in which albums were elaborately arranged and scored for a small army of musicians, with nary a synthesizer in sight. He also tries to resuscitate a style of songwriting which is all about melody. Nothing wrong with either of those two things. But in order for this to work, you have to have the talent to write memorable melodies, and a great deal of taste in orchestration. Neil Hannon has neither. The arrangements are hamhanded and suffocating. His melodies are crap, like a Broadway musical that flops on opening night. Finally, I find his baritone unpleasant, utterly without charm, interpretative skill or nuance. A Short Album About Love may indeed be short, but not short enough for my taste.

I only like one or two songs by The Divine Comedy, and neither of them are on this album. One positive is it's length.

Some of these lyrics are... insane? This is indeed an album of love

i em a stacker

Fav tracks: everybody knows, if i were you, timewatching Es una voz peculiar, a ratos no me gusta mucho Me gusta la dinámica