The Divine Comedy
Charmed Life - The Best of The Divine Comedy
(Divine Comedy)
'... everybody knows that no means yes/just like glasses come free on the NHS.'
'Becoming More Like Alfie' - The Divine Comedy
I'm trying hard to think of a line in a song that irks me as much as the one above.
In the early 90s I spent some time as the elected Women's Officer at my University's Students Union. I was not and am not a counselor, I've never professed to be, but my office was a safe place, one where students could be open about their concerns. I heard so many tales from visitors of assault, abuse, and rape. Frequently they left the office with leaflets and telephone numbers for further help and support. There was a 'No Means No' poster outside my office, it became a mantra because so many (usually), blokes had so much difficulty taking no for an answer.
Not long after, Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy spends an entire album discussing his newly found virility. And unleashes this pompous single that sniggers at the issues of consent in the same way that a member of the Bullingdon Club setting fire to Fifty Pound notes in front of a homeless persons face. If this was meant to be satire (his 'Sgt Rock is Going to Help Me', his Momus impression), then it failed on all counts.
There would be other lapses of taste and judgment. The role of the black woman on Generation Sex is performed by Katie Puckrick, who is most definitely not black and then there's the sneery punching down of National Express ('...her arse is the size of a small country' etc. etc.) And somehow all of this is available on this best of. To quote the original Divine Comedy: "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”
Essential Info
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