The Divine Comedy: Bang Goes the Knighthood

"Can you write a silly song? It's harder than you think," sings Neil Hannon on Can You Stand Upon One Leg? It's a pertinent question, and one loaded with knowingness. Even people who know Dante might focus more on the comedy than the divine in Hannon's music. There lies a dichotomy at the midst of his work; he's defined by his role as a Wildean wit, but his best work comes in his Songs of Loves, not his National Expresses. That continues on his 10th LP where the serious (Down in the Street Below) and the angry (Complete Banker) outshine the whimsy of Assume the Perpendicular and The Art of Conversation, odes to day tripping and chatting respectively.