Short Album About Love, A

The peculiarly packaged A SHORT ALBUM ABOUT LOVE is available as three separate CD singles or as a single box set that contains all three CDs. The album is the musically, lyrically, and conceptually unified effort suggested by the simple and descriptive title. Recorded in New York City and backed by a 30-piece orchestra, the album allows Irish singer/songwriter Neil Hannon--The Divine Comedy's only constant member--to give full rein to his art-pop fantasies. The orchestral arrangements give Hannon's songs the lush romanticism he'd reached toward on earlier albums like LIBERATION and PROMENADE, and his wry, ironic lyrics are particularly well suited for the backing. A SHORT ALBUM ABOUT LOVE recalls Hannon's obvious heroes, '60s cabaret-pop weirdo Scott Walker and the brilliant though deliberately provocative French jazz-pop genius Serge Gainsbourg, as well as more recent pop artists like Momus, the Monochrome Set, and the Magnetic Fields.|