Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Neil Hannon divides popular opinion as if having to choose between two certain brands of cola or picking out a holiday destination in two rival but equally well thought of islands. There are those that love what he does, the clever intonation, lyrics that play with the English language in such a way that he has become a master of the baroque and ornate. However all is not that plain sailing the polarising view is that he too intellectual, not that this is a bad thing, just some for whatever reason find it irritating.
Never though has two albums he has been part of, namely The Duckworth Lewis Method’s 2009 eponymous debut album and its follow up four years later Sticky Wickets divided opinion quite as much. For the debut album was an intake of jovial and outstanding humour punctured by the occasional sombre repose and introspective look at the game of cricket and released before the fantastic Ashes series of 2009, for cricket lovers it raised a smile broader than a flash of the blade by Andrew Flintoff or a well timed run up by Jimmy Anderson. Sticky Wickets has completely the opposite effect, the downbeat nature throughout is almost akin to being forced to sit through the entire 1989 Ashes debacle once more, something that even the most cruellest and masochistic of England cricket fans would shy away from.
As you would expect with the combination of Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh there are flashes of inspiration but they come too and far between and not once does the feel of humour that you want from these two great men of Irish music ever appear. Imagine cricket without the smile of the great Curtly Ambrose as he takes another wicket or Phil Tufnell being told to reign in his enthusiasm for the game he loves and this is the cricket version of the album. Clever it may be but it doesn’t have the feel of love, history or enjoyment that songs from the debut album offered the listener.
Even for the biggest Neil Hannon fan, those that have revelled in his work, whether the 1996 Casanova album or the outstanding 2010 Bang Goes The Knighthood, Sticky Wickets is an album that just doesn’t deliver, it is pop’s version of watching poor old Min Patel being slogged around the pitch in 1996, it certainly isn’t going to bowl any maidens, or fans, over.
Ian D. Hall