The Divine Comedy - Fin de siècle (1998)

Suitably end of the century concerns and music styles delivered with Neil Hannon's celebrated lyricism blending fin de siècle irony, social criticism, emotional alienation, into something serious and yet self-effacing because anything too serious would cheapen it: "she's not like the others/with their papers and their headphones on/she reads novels by French authors with loose morals." No doubt a minor triumph, problem is I can't get into the way it sounds.

A for effort, C for me going straight back to the effortless A Short Album About Love

here

Jim O'Rourke - Halfway to a Threeway (1999)

Rare instance of holy shit musical perfection for four tracks. Title track is either the prettiest song about fucking someone in a coma ever written, or the most accurate portrayal of the psychological/emotional distance between two people as a relationship falls apart ever condensed into four minutes. Either way, I get him

A

here
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