“It’s pretty rancid! That brain mulching sound they put on vocals makes me feel slightly sick”: The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon isn’t a fan of modern pop music

Neil Hannon, aka The Divine Comedy, doesn’t seem to like modern pop music much. In fact, he has described it as “rancid”.

The Northern Irish musician has a new album out this week – the 13th under the Divine Comedy banner – with the evocative title of Rainy Sunday Afternoons. And in an interview with Rolling Stone in which he talked about the record, writing film music and his work on sitcom Father Ted back in the 1990s, conversation got around to whether he sees himself in any young songwriters.

“I have to be honest and say I don’t sort of go scouring the internet for new acts that I like,” Hannon began. “It’s always nice when you do come across something that floats your boat. And there have been things. But, and it could be because I’m old and jaded, I’m not a big fan of the sound of current pop music. It’s pretty rancid! That brain mulching sound they put on vocals makes me feel slightly sick.

“But I’m sure they’re enjoying it, or else they wouldn’t do it. There’s lots of like alternative stuff underneath, which has a bit more spunk, and there have been times with pop music where you only realise it was good after the event.”

He continued: “I didn’t realise Wham! were as good as they were when I was 13 or 14. And now you listen to them and it’s like a breath of fresh air. But records these days are virtually all made inside a computer and it hasn’t helped. The fact is that the cheaper option is always the option that wins the day.”

Circling back to the new album, he mentioned that whilst they did use computers, “we tried to record it in a way that was as old-school as possible with excellent microphones from the '50s and '60s and sending it through the old mixing desk in Abbey Road.”

“It’s really not just another studio,” he says of the famous facility. “And we could only afford 10 days, so we worked quick. I don’t believe that Syd Barrett’s hand is on your shoulder or John Lennon is guiding your fingers across the piano, but there’s something really cool about the place. It’s like a sort of good old music factory. And there’s always cool people in the canteen too. I was walking up the stairwell and my eyes weren’t drawn to photos of the Beatles and the Stones, it was Shirley Bassey and people like that. I love the fact that those records were made there…”