Allison, Darren. A Secret History... The Best of the Divine Comedy (CD booklet). Setanta Records. SETCDL100. A Short Album About Love peaked at No. 21 in October 2020 when re-issued on their own label Divine Comedy A Secret History... The Best of the Divine Comedy". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 14 November 2020.

Promenade', originally released in 1994, loosely recounts a day in the life of a pair of friends / siblings / lovers. Don't Look Down - Our couple are now off to the fairground, and in another deeply Nyman-esque tune (minimalist piano, baroque strings, reed flourishes, you know the drill), it's the man who doesn't want to get on the big wheel. Ahh, for the good old days when men were men and pansies were flowers. But like a bloke who goes to see Legally Blonde 2 just to impress the lady he's with, he eventually succumbs. To the big wheel anyway; any fleshier succumbing will have to wait a bit. This is a lyrically splendid song, even by the standards of a generally lyrically splendid album; the first half resolves itself with the great payoff:Ten Seconds To Midnight - Both a lovely slow piano poem and an homage to Peter Greenaway's "Drowning By Numbers" (you don't get this sort of thing on a Kylie album, do you?), this song serves as an overview of the day, of a life, and indeed of all human existence. And there you were thinking it was just a two minute piano doodle. But its main purpose is to set you up for..... The sample in "Ode to the Man" features Micheál Mac Liammóir quoting John Dryden's English translation of one of Horace's odes ( Imitation of Horace, book III, ode 29, vv. 65-72) [12] in the 1963 film Tom Jones. The finale is a dazzling piece of wordsmithery, as time stands still at the top of the wheel, and the man feels the need to have a conversation with god. Out pours a startling atheist diatribe, all the most brazen when it's written by the son of a Protestant bishop. Another recurring element is gods from Greek and Roman mythology: specifically, Aphrodite ("Bath"), Mercury ("Going Downhill Fast") and Neptune ("Neptune's Daughter"). The CD release consists of 2 discs: the original remastered album, with a second CD of b-sides, demos and alternate versions lovingly curated by Neil Hannon, much of which has never been heard before. The CD comes with a booklet of photos, credits and extensive liner notes written by Neil covering the context and inspiration behind the album and its songs.

For the 30th Anniversary reissue, 'Promenade' has been remastered by Frank Arkwright at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, and the iconic images have been restored by photographer Kevin Westenberg.There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", on the various artists Smiths tribute album The Smiths Is Dead (1996) Jean Seberg: Je veux que les gens s'occupant pas de moi et puis je suis independente... Peut etre que tu m'aimes? However, at times, Office Politics seems a little too aware of its joke, not unlike like the disco-dope of “The Life and Soul of the Party,” showing off drunken dance moves and rambling to co-workers who do not care. The punchline—that he’s alone and no one likes him—is obvious from the song’s opening line: we get it, office and suburban life are dull, but by this point in the album, it’s a cliche. The album is a showcase for frontman and songwriter Neil Hannon’s literate nature, with allusions to Shakespeare, French New Wave cinema, Greek mythology, and Roman poetry. The Book Lovers is an extended list of more than 70 authors along with puns or jokes about their output.