Pop Idol

A miracle. Neil Hannon is probably the last crooner on Earth, direct descendant of Scott Walker and Frank Sinatra. The best salesman for the job.

Crooners are made for stage. They have these appearance and charisma which undeniably stagger the audience. Crooners are dry-wit, elegant, smart and captivating. They have a voice everybody would die to have. Perfect tones. Perfect notes. Never a mistake. Always charming. Neil Hannon, the man behind Divine Comedy just got me and my friends many years ago.

Here is a private recording done few days ago in 'Le Grenier' @ the venue 'La Vapeur' in Dijon in september 2010. A song from the Casanova album, "Becoming More Like Alfie". Delicious.

Ok, two more things to show you. Here is an extract from the live concert in 2003 at the Palladium in London. Together with a 16-pieces orchestra and an enthraling girl, Hannon performed an absolutely fantastic concert that I wished I could have been part of. There's a DVD of it.

To finish, Regeneration, the best album he ever made, produced by Godrich. "Just when you start to take a "Yeah, OK, old news, whatever" attitude about Neil Hannon, he hits you with his most accomplished work yet, reminding you of the impressive, inexhaustible depth of his abilities as a singer, writer, and arranger. With a huge assist from fantastically warm, sensual production by Radiohead's engineer, Nigel Godrich, Regeneration is the most ambitious baroque-pop LP Hannon's attempted outside of 1997's A Short Album About Love."
Some songs are almost Radiohead-ish and the entire album is composed of jewels and hits. Perfect Lovesong is a anthem for love. Here is how Divine Comedy sounded like in 2001.