After Regeneration saw the band go all guitar based, with just a few strings, Absent Friends went the other way toward pop chamber music. Victory for the Comic Muse claws back a little of the rock element that made their most famous releases, Casanova and Fin de Siecle, so popular. This is especially notable in the wry look at adolescent rumpy pumpy (or lack thereof) in To Die A Virgin and also in the first single, Diva Lady taking (a fairly soft) swipe at vocalising drama queens. Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World is musically far less esoteric than its title although its theme of not being able to comprehend a girlfriend is perhaps more amusingly (if musically less ambitiously) covered in Mitch Benn's My Girlfriend is an Alien. I've always been a sucker for Hannon's bouncingly perky numbers and Mother Dear is perhaps his perkiest and cuts through lyrics that, in a terribly sincere musical setting, would be rather cloying.
No Divine Comedy album would be complete without at least one grandiose epic and The Plough fills this role admirably with its rather improbable tale of accountancy, religious uncertainty and communist plots. A Lady of a Certain Age is an epic of more gentile proportions cataloging the misfortunes of a lonely well to do lady, the sort one could imagine being played by Maggie Smith in a film. Hannon has covered a number of songs in his time, but usually just live or as a B side, but Party Fears Two is the first to appear on an album. The original, by 80's group The Associates, has quite the most extraordinary singing I've ever heard on a mainstream pop song; Hannon tones it down and changes the catchy synth riff to strings and it marches along very appealingly. The only down side is that it threatens to become the most memorable song on the album. No slight on Hannon's own material, it's just insanely catchy.
Count Grassi and Snowball in Negative are Hannon at his most pretentious, the sort of songs that may baffle the average pop picker. Count Grassi is a lively Jules Verne-esque hot air balloon ride across Europe which barrels along most appealingly. The rather more introvert Snowball in Negative comes across as two songs bolted together; the vocal parts are quite sombre, but broken up by a more radiant piano riff led instrumental. Its strangeness makes it easy to dismiss on first listen and I'm not convinced it's an ideal song on which to close, but it's worth persevering. Where Absent Friends has plenty of superb tracks, there are a couple that are easy to skip, Victory for the Comic Muse is terrific throughout and even the more esoteric tracks are worth the effort. I'm disinclined to say a return to form as Hannon very rarely disappoints, but this easily stacks up against the triumphs of the 90's; great lyrics, wonderfully memorable tunes and perfect arrangements.
As a footnote, the b sides are especially good and worth seeking out; Don't Blame the Young and Births, Deaths and Marriages are every bit as good as the album songs.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 44:32