Liberation (The Divine Comedy album)

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Liberation
LiberationDivineComedy.jpg
Studio album by
the Divine Comedy
Released16 August 1993 (1993-08-16)
RecordedMarch 1993
StudioFundamental, London
Genre
Length51:57
LabelSetanta
Producer
The Divine Comedy chronology
Fanfare for the Comic Muse
(1990) 		Liberation
(1993) 		Promenade
(1994)
Singles from Liberation
  1. "Lucy"
    Released: 18 October 1993

Liberation is the second album by Irish chamber pop band the Divine Comedy, released in 1993 by Setanta Records.

Background[]

Production[]

The album was recorded over the space of twelve days in March, 1993 by Hannon and Darren Allison. Hannon played most of the instruments on the album, while Allison was the recording engineer and drummer.[3] It includes instruments like harpsichord, violin, viola, cello, French horn, and a Hammond B3 organ.[3]

Composition[]

Liberation includes a mixture of pop[1] and art pop music.[2] Several of the album tracks are inspired by or refer to works of literature: "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is based on the short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "Three Sisters" is about the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov; "Lucy" is an amalgamation of three of the Lucy poems by William Wordsworth;[4] "Timewatching" is inspired by the popular song "When I Fall In Love"; "Death of a Supernaturalist" is preceded by a quote from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster, spoken by Julian Sands and Daniel Day-Lewis and sampled from the Merchant-Ivory film of the same name. More playfully, "Festive Road" is a tribute to the children's television programme Mr Benn.

Release[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3/5 stars[2]
Hot Press10/12[1]
Select4/5[5]

The album was released in 18 August 1993. Although it was the band's second album, the band's leader, Neil Hannon, often refers to it as the first, due to the stylistic differences from their debut album, Fanfare for the Comic Muse.[citation needed]

Track listing[]

All songs written and arranged by Neil Hannon; additional lyrics on "Lucy" by William Wordsworth.

No.TitleLength
1."Festive Road"1:56
2."Death of a Supernaturalist"3:18
3."Bernice Bobs Her Hair"4:00
4."I Was Born Yesterday"3:29
5."Your Daddy's Car"3:55
6."Europop"4:30
7."Timewatching"3:53
8."The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count"4:19
9."Queen of the South"4:27
10."Victoria Falls"4:10
11."Three Sisters"4:42
12."Europe by Train"4:27
13."Lucy"4:39

Personnel[]

Per 1999 CD booklet of the A Secret History... The Best of the Divine Comedy.[3]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Clark, Stuart (25 August 1993). "The Divine Comedy: Liberation". Hot Press. Archived from the original on 31 May 2004. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Raggett, Ned. "Liberation – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c A Secret History – The Best of the Divine Comedy (CD booklet). Setanta. 199. p. 6. SETCD100.
  4. ^ "Lucy". Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  5. ^ Linehan, Graham (September 1993). "The Divine Comedy: Liberation". Select. No. 39. p. 86.
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