Casanova

Product Information

After spending quality time with the album, all 11 tracks here become songs of love to love, even if they are all actually about sex (or maybe especially because of that fact).

The album has been remastered from the original tapes at the legendary Abbey Road Studios by mastering engineer Frank Arkwright (Blur, The Smiths. I listen and content myself knowing that someone out there is still carrying the mantle of Walker’s style. Its central theme is sex, around which all songs on the album centre, except "The Dogs and the Horses", which is the last song on the album and whose theme is death. First released in 1996 it explored and dissected a world of casual affairs, loose morals and a thousand anxieties in between. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.The LP release consists of the original remastered album, cut at Abbey Road, packaged with a download code for the album and bonus tracks. I had this on a TDK cassette and played it over and over flying from London to Japan on the way to Australia in early 1997. Jeremy Lee of ABC News considered that this record brought Neil Hannon "closer to the orchestral pop sound he'd been dreaming of.

Talbot was beginning to play an increasingly important role in the band; he arranged and orchestrated "The Dogs and the Horses," and he co-arranged "Theme from Casanova" with Hannon. The album is “inspired by the writings of the eighteenth century Venetian gambler, eroticist, and spy” (which Hannon himself details in the penultimate “Theme From Casanova”, using his best BBC voice as he ushers in a contrastingly gentle and ambling instrumental piece). Phrases like “Pale, pubescent beasts” are golden, but one line sticks out in particular: “Fortune depends on the tone of your voice. But hearing it also reminds me to be thankful that the show put me onto one of Northern Ireland’s best musical exports: The Divine Comedy.The CD release consists of 2 discs: the original remastered album, with a second CD of B-sides, demos and alternate versions lovingly curated by Neil Hannon, much of which has never been heard before. Setanta was able to indulge Neil Hannon's desire because of the success of Edwyn Collins' hit single " A Girl Like You". I may be ready to leave Father Ted behind in the vault of nostalgia in my mind, but Casanova I will keep coming back to – and not just for “Songs of Love”. Like I imagine many others did, I found The Divine Comedy through the Irish comedy series Father Ted. The album's closing track, "The Dogs and the Horses", recorded at Abbey Road Studios, features a large orchestral ensemble which includes future members of the live band, namely Joby Talbot, Stuart 'Pinkie' Bates, Grant Gordon, and Bryan Mills.