Now I feel like Kafka with a bad migraine

[sovay]

After a run of welcomely lovely days, it was perhaps inevitable but deeply resented that I should hit a couple that sucked on toast, logistically, emotionally, resource-wise. I lost one completely to driving to a doctor's appointment that could have been virtual and too much of this afternoon and evening was spent in the kind of frustrated flat uselessness that I hope counts as convalescence because otherwise it's even more of a waste than it feels to me. Without spending that much time in the car, I have been listening to a lot of college radio. Girl in Red's "I'll Call You Mine" (2021) turns out to be a queer outlaw ballad while Jay Som's "Float (feat. Jim Adkins)" (2025) is a sweetly affirming house party. I was doing all right with the Divine Comedy's "Achilles" (2025) until it pulled out Housman and Patrick Shaw-Stewart and then the video was directly in the line of Jarman. I am unduly entertained by the reference to methylene blue in Jealous of the Birds' "Tonight I Feel Like Kafka" (2016).

Comments

[f0rrest]

Good to know that Neil Hannon is still making music under The Divine Comedy. I went through a little obsessive phase with his music. If I had to choose, I'd say his song "Generation Sex" is my favorite. It's a nice commentary on consumerism that still fits today, and it's like transcendentally catchy.

[sovay]

Good to know that Neil Hannon is still making music under The Divine Comedy.

Yes! I was just thinking about his music last month, so it was nice to find out that between then and now he had released a new album.

If I had to choose, I'd say his song "Generation Sex" is my favorite. It's a nice commentary on consumerism that still fits today, and it's like transcendentally catchy.

The transcendent catchiness is a very popular choice with the Divine Comedy.

[f0rrest]

Have you heard Cleaners From Venus? It's mainly one guy, Martin Newell, an eccentric poet, author, and of course musician, who's been active since the early 80s and has recorded dozens of lo-fi pop albums on like four-tracks and they all have that transcendent catchiness to them. Many of his songs are autobiographical and poppy, but he's got a way of weaving this sort of introspective melancholy too, and there are a handful of songs that have that same sort of character-sketch quality to them a la Divine Comedy. He's an English treasure, I think.

[sovay]

Have you heard Cleaners From Venus?

I have, but neither of the songs which you link, and which I appreciate! "They haven't really been this angry since 1381."