The tenth long-player from Neil Hannon's Divine Comedy is simply not cricket. Having recently been nominated for an Ivor Novello award following 2009's widely acclaimed The Duckworth Lewis Method, the dandy Derryman has shed his sporting alter ego, put away his knee pads, and delivered a brilliantly batty new album.
Written, produced and released by Hannon on Divine Comedy Records, there's a slightly decadent theme to Bang Goes The Knighthood. Hannon being Hannon, though, it's more the Carry On kind. The album cover depicts the singer wearing just a bowtie and bowler hat, quaffing champagne and smoking a pipe, while sharing a bubble bath with a dog. Undoubtedly inspired by the Max Mosley affair, the title track concerns a rich and powerful Englishman's visit to a whip-wielding dominatrix in London – risking his reputation for a cheap and tawdry thrill. 'Neapolitan Girl' concerns a prostitute plying her trade in a graveyard.
Other forms of decadence also come in for lampooning. His attack on the reckless gamblers working in the financial services industry, 'The Complete Banker', should be dedicated to Seanie Fitzpatrick: "Can anyone lend me ten billon quid/ Why'd you look so glum/ was it something I did?/ So I caused a second great depression/ what can I say?/ I guess I got a bit carried away."
There's also some sublime songwriting on display. Album opener 'Down in the Street Below' starts as a beautifully bittersweet ballad before rapidly picking up tempo, "talking about burritos and conceptual art." He namechecks Morrissey, Blur, The Cure, The Pixies and various others before catching the night bus home on nostalgically strummed lead single 'At The Indie Disco'. His duet with Cathy Davey, 'Island Life', is as gorgeous as anything he's ever done. It closes with 'I Like', a feelgood hymn to the joys of domesticity (though the song doesn't mention his Choice-funded kitchen).
Overall this is a playful, slightly warped, musically eclectic and mostly uplifting affair. It probably won't bag him a knighthood, but fans won't be disappointed.