Given the name of this band, the title of the album, and the cover photo, I get the feeling I'm in for some pretentious Warhol-esque bullshit on the level of The Velvet Underground. The only saving grace is the year the album was released. 1996 wasn't exactly the height of pretentiousness unless you were a grunge band writing songs about teen suicide. So I'm hoping Casanova leans more in the direction of say Rufus Wainwright when it comes to high art. That's assuming The Divine Comedy is a high-art type of act and not just some crappy grunge band. I honestly have no clue what this is going to be.
We start with "Something for the Weekend" which doesn't really provide clarity. The song has a goofy boppy energy and features a gaggle of single instruments- by that I mean there doesn't seem to be a horn or string section, but maybe one or two horns and one or two violins playing backing parts. The lead singer kinda sounds like a vampire, though he's not as dark or faux-deathly as Nick Cave. Two of the first three songs begin with him talking creepily to a girl or group of girls as if he's beckoning them to come into his basement so he can molest or maybe eat them.
I guess Casanova could be an attempt to merge pop music with lounge music. I kinda hate it. The music itself isn't bad, but this guy's really deep theatrical voice is so obnoxious. I go back to what I just heard listening to ELO and thinking how impressive it was that they could blend all the instruments and voices together without the song sounding crowded. Whatever is happening on Casanova is exactly the opposite. The different parts of the recording don't blend together. I'm wondering if any of this was recorded live in studio, or if every instrument was recorded in an isolated space, and then everything was overlayed. I feel no ambiance, no warmth.
"Charge" has a verse in the middle where the asshole vocalist (and yes, I can now safely call him an asshole) does an obvious and terrible impression of Barry White. It's completely out of left field in a song that had been mostly a baroque epic about war. I guess this is meant to be the "comedy" part. I'm not laughing. It's one of the dumbest things I've heard in my life.
"Songs Of Love" is the first positive notes I hear from The Divine Comedy. To start it's mostly acoustic-guitar and harpsichord. Second, the vocalist drops the really phony lounge singer voice and sings in a higher and softer register. If he can keep that up for a few songs I might consider not hating him for the rest of my life.
Well, I kinda still have to hate him for his lyrics. "The Frog Princess" features the charming line, "How was I suppose to know that just one kiss would turn my frog into a cow?" Comedy! The backing music at least had a solid ambiance.
I found The Divine Comedy's Casanova to be self-serving, uninteresting, and poorly assembled. The closing song "The Dogs & The Horses" attempts to be grand and epic, perhaps in the mold of "Isn't Life Strange" by The Moody Blues. Both songs have a similar quiet-to-explosive pattern, but The Moody Blues succeed in mixing the various elements of their band with the orchestral backing, and their vocals fit perfectly. The Divine Comedy comes nowhere close to replicating this feat. It's a shame so much went to waste. 2 stars.
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