{"id":63061,"date":"2025-09-14T06:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/63061\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T06:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:52:08","slug":"on-new-music-love-loss-and-timothee-chalamet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/63061\/","title":{"rendered":"On new music, love, loss and Timothe\u00e9 Chalamet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil\u00a0Hannon has a simple ambition. His new album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, is his 13th release under the banner of The Divine Comedy \u2014 but fans needn\u2019t worry about the now 54-year-old taking early retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is 13, I kind of want to get to 20, because I like neatness,\u201d he says, a silk scarf slung rakishly around his neck when we meet for coffee in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ve worked out that I\u2019d have to make an album every 2.3 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He baulks at the idea, noting how he once churned out albums with aplomb as a younger man.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I feel like I need a four-year rest in between [each one]. But also, I feel like people need a rest from me. It\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my god, another Divine Comedy album? Jesus\u2019. So I don\u2019t know how we\u2019re gonna get to 20 at this rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He looks momentarily perplexed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might just splurge at some point and do about five in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is little chance that listeners will feel jaded by Rainy Sunday Afternoon, which is one of the most sumptuous-sounding Divine Comedy albums to date.<\/p>\n

Recorded at Abbey Rd\u2019s iconic Studio 3, these are beautifully arranged orchestral pop songs with an opaque underbelly, taking their cue from greats such as Burt Bacharach and Scott Walker.<\/p>\n

After 2019\u2019s synthpop-addled Office Politics, he notes how \u201cyou always return to your happy place in the end\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hannon, that place is melancholic orchestral pop music \u2014 although he recently had the chance to indulge his more whimsical side by writing the original songs for the soundtrack of 2023\u2019s Wonka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept imagining for years that I was going to get sacked at any moment when they realised \u2018Why have we got this little indie fellow doing the songs for this massive Hollywood film?\u2019\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really just channeling a different part of myself, because I love proper family musicals in the old style. So when you get a job like that, you just go, \u2018Oh, yeah! I don\u2019t have to be remotely cynical or ironic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He met the man who sang his songs, Timothe\u00e9 Chalamet, on a handful of occasions \u2014 a \u201clovely lad\u201d, by his reckoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think I was very lucky to have him in that role, because he actually had a really nice voice and he brought them to life really successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recording the Wonka soundtrack at Abbey Rd also inadvertently inspired the new Divine Comedy album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vividly remember sitting at the back of the room going: \u2018This sounds so good. I\u2019ve got to make a record just like this before I cop it\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it had to be a certain kind of record. And then songs like I Want You and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter came along, and I thought: \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s a vibe that will work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He pauses for a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr maybe that was just hiding the fact that these songs were helping me. That it was kind of soothing my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NeilNeil Hannon of The Divine Comedy: \u201cBut how am I going to get to 20 albums if I write a bloody book?\u201d. Pic: Kevin Westenberg<\/p>\n

DEPARTURES<\/p>\n

There were other reasons for the album\u2019s somewhat lugubrious tone.<\/p>\n

His favourite dog died. Then he and his wife, musician and animal rights campaigner Cathy Davey, were temporarily \u201cexiled\u201d from their Kildare home during building work, making for an uneasy year-long displacement.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Hannon also lost his father Brian after a long decline due to Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The song The Last Time I Saw the Old Man is a moving account of his last visit home, with lyrics like: \u201cThe last time I saw the old man \/ He was moving very slowly, and he didn\u2019t seem to know me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost a relief when he died, because he\u2019d been living with Alzheimer\u2019s for a long time and it was kind of cruel to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sighs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look upon the song as being written for him, or as a dedication, it\u2019s kind of an on-the-nose observational portrait of the unfairness of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know that far too many people are in the same position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why I wrote it. I just had to write it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all doom and gloom.<\/p>\n

There is space for some lightheartedness in the shape of The Man Who Turned Into a Chair, while All the Pretty Lights is a gorgeous blast of nostalgia in the form of a childhood Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cgallows humour\u201d of Mar-a-Lago by the Sea \u2014 a song written pre-election that imagined Trump in a prison cell, nostalgic for his \u201chorrible home\u201d, is the closest Hannon may come to writing a political song.<\/p>\n

There have been ups and downs in recent years, but one highlight was finally tying the knot with the aforementioned Davey.<\/p>\n

While she has sung on previous Divine Comedy albums, she could not be coaxed out of semi-retirement this time.<\/p>\n

Another woman in his life who does feature on Rainy Sunday Afternoon, however, is his 23\u2013year-old daughter Willow, who sings on the album Invisible Thread.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With lyrics like \u201cI used to think that nobody could keep you safe but me \/ That only I could guide you through life\u2019s crazy tapestry \/ But now you\u2019re guiding me\u201d, it\u2019s a beautiful paean to the bittersweetness of watching your children spread their wings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really give her an option. I said: \u2018Come and sing on my record\u2019,\u201d he says of her enlistment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did she react [to the song]? She\u2019s so like me, to the extent that we don\u2019t really talk about that stuff. We just know each other\u2019s feelings, and then talk about Pixies records or history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow is now in her own band, Burglar.<\/p>\n

\"NeilNeil Hannon of The Divine Comedy. Pic: Kevin Westenberg<\/p>\n

MORE TO DO<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Hannon presented the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year to (a representative) of Fontaines DC \u2014 a prize that he himself won for his 2006 album Victory for the Comic Muse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If he hadn\u2019t already stated his ambition to make at least seven more albums you might assume that he is ready to pass on the baton, but there is plenty more work to do.<\/p>\n

\n Wonka was not his only recent incursion into the film world; he also provided the soundtrack to sci-fi film LOLA in 2022, and there are songs on Rainy Sunday Afternoon that you could easily imagine on a Bond soundtrack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He rebuffs the possibility, noting how you \u201chave to be the most famous person in the world\u201d to be considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they going to get Taylor Swift to do the next one?\u201d He frowns. \u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019s quite right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The much-touted Father Ted musical, which he was also writing the songs for, was very much on track the last time The Divine Comedy released an album in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That project has now been shelved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there anything he wants to say about that? Hannon thinks for the briefest of moments. \u201cNo,\u201d he says, before bursting into peals of laughter.<\/p>\n

It has been 35 years since The Divine Comedy\u2019s debut album Fanfare for the Comic Muse was released, and he guffaws at the idea of reconciling the driven young musician he was back then with who he is now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have about 1% of the ambition that I had when I was 20,\u201d he admits, laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I was just made of ambition as a 20-year-old. Now it\u2019s like, \u2018Whatever\u2026.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there may still be one item to be ticked off the bucket list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years ago, Hannon dismissed the notion of penning his memoir, protesting that he has \u201cnot led a particularly fascinating life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, however, he is warming to the idea. \u201cWell, my life has gotten more interesting\u2026 ,\u201d he says after a lengthy pause. \u201cSo\u2026 maybe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He suddenly jolts back to reality. \u201cBut how am I going to get to 20 albums if I write a bloody book?\u201d<\/p>\n