EMI/Parlophone
2001
Regeneration
About This Album
Just when you start to take a "Yeah, OK, old news, whatever" attitude about Neil Hannon, he hits you with his most accomplished work yet, reminding you of the impressive, inexhaustible depth of his abilities as a singer, writer, and arranger. With a huge assist from fantastically warm, sensual production by Radiohead's engineer, Nigel Godrich, Regeneration is the most ambitious baroque-pop LP Hannon's attempted outside of 1997's A Short Album About Love. And while that one-off was nearly, almost wonderfully overwhelmed by the orchestra he hired for the two London Shepherd's Bush Empire evenings it came from, here those same elements are ever-present but take a supporting role instead of the lead. What's emphasized instead are the things Hannon does so damn well: intelligently-constructed, highly evolved and involved pop with excellent lyrics, led by his deft piano touches and moody bass and guitar -- the music that best frames his unabashed crooning. Actually, on most of this LP he's a little bit more restrained than normal, cooing more than the man who wailed so melodramatically on the cultured old standbys that made his name (like "The Frog Princess").
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.