The Divine Comedy

The orchestral-pop project of Derry-born Neil Hannon, The Divine Comedy combine meticulously written songs with sardonic, allusion-heavy observations on the world’s absurdities. Hannon founded The Divine Comedy in 1989, releasing the mini-album Fanfare for the Comic Muse the following year. After releasing a few EPs in the early ’90s, The Divine Comedy released Liberation in 1993; it drew inspiration from Fitzgerald and Chekhov while showcasing Hannon’s rich vocals. The concept album Promenade, a seaside love story, arrived a year later. But as Britpop peaked, Hannon got swept up in the tide and enjoyed a breakthrough hit in 1996 with the revenge tale “Something for the Weekend”, the lead single off the album Casanova; another cut from that record, the breezy “Songs of Love”, became the theme for the beloved Irish sitcom Father Ted. A Short Album About Love followed in 1997; the next year The Divine Comedy released Fin De Siècle, which spawned the tabloid-skewing “Generation Sex” and the transit portrait “National Express”. In the 21st century, Hannon released more music under the name The Divine Comedy, including 2004’s Nigel Godrich-produced Absent Friends and 2019’s cubicle-life concept album Office Politics, while contributing music to films and TV shows like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who.