The album is unique in the Divine Comedy catalogue—and in the catalogue of most recent popular music—in that Hannon's original aim with the album was to record it entirely in two weeks, with the minimum of overdubbing. As such, almost all of the music on the album—much to the chagrin of the classical players involved on almost every track, and the Divine Comedy band itself—was recorded in live takes. At first, they attempted to use no click tracks or headphones, but this approach was eventually abandoned.[7] The band would record their part, the orchestra would overdub theirs, and then Hannon would record his vocals. No further overdubbing took place unless absolutely necessary, in a fairly hurried style of recording, and in stark contrast to the modern recording technique of stacking up tracks.[citation needed]
During the recording, Hannon's vocals had to be recorded even more hurriedly than planned because for most of the two weeks he was suffering from a cold that got progressively worse before finally clearing up.[citation needed]
Release and reception
A special edition version of the album, officially available only on the first day of release, came with a bonus DVD and an additional cardboard sleeve.
On 28 February 2007, Victory for the Comic Muse won the Choice Music Prize at a ceremony that took place in Dublin's Vicar Street venue. The Choice Music Prize is Ireland's equivalent to the Mercury Music Prize. The judging panel was made up of 12 representatives from the Irish music industry. The prize consisted of a trophy as well as a cheque for €10,000. The Divine Comedy's victory was unexpected, as the album had received some lukewarm reviews, became their first album (and currently only) since their mainstream breakthrough in Ireland to miss the top 20 of their albums chart, while there was strong competition from the likes of The Immediate, Duke Special and Snow Patrol.
Since the release of this album, others that have followed have all gone top ten, but this is to date their only album era to witness any award wins, all despite its commercial and critical lukewarm reception.
Track listing
All songs written by Neil Hannon except where noted.
[1]