Casanova

Product Information

When the bass gets slinky and busy during passages on “Charge” and “A Woman of the World” there are echoes of Climate of Hunter to be heard. On a related note, my slightly racist, second cousin Terrance often tells a story about when he went into a portaloo after Neil Hannon, at the Glastonbury Festival once. 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.

The Northern Irish band ushered in a new set of fans and a wash of fame by penning the show’s theme tune, as well as providing other incidental music throughout the show’s three series run ( including probably the loveliest song about a horse you’ll ever hear). It's probably in some ways DC's crudest album, but it's also crackling with brilliant lyricism and wit, and full of tracks that will stick in your head for days. The album's sixth track, "Songs of Love", made its debut on the popular Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, [5] officially remaining the show's theme song, as heard in its opening titles and end credits. I rewatched the show recently, and while I did laugh plenty, I also winced a great deal, amazed that so much offensive detail didn’t irk me at all when I was younger. Jeremy Lee of ABC News considered that this record brought Neil Hannon "closer to the orchestral pop sound he'd been dreaming of.That’s the guy who does the Father Ted theme,” I thought to myself, knowing little else of his musical output at that point. There will be others who can relate to that, but it’s by no means a requirement for enjoying Casanova. I listen and content myself knowing that someone out there is still carrying the mantle of Walker’s style. Perhaps Hannon is poking fun at himself and the love-song-writing community, but he still takes his advice to heart – something that helps distinguish him from other artists.

This is a brilliant album, it features The Divine Comedy's best songs such as Something for the weekend and Songs of love which was the theme tune from Father Ted.

The song was later covered by Ben Folds on his EP Sunny 16 in 2003 and Peter Bjorn and John as part of Under the Radar's Covers of Covers album in 2022. Take the aforementioned “Songs of Love” for example; Hannon pokes fun at young couples prancing about in front of him with absolutely no regard for how miserable he is. Thanks to orchestral arranger Joby Talbot, Hannon sounds truly like a timeless icon here, and that that icon is Scott Walker makes the album all the more enjoyable. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.