Description
£21.99 – Limited Edition Opaque White & Light Blue Coloured Vinyl 2xLP
MEMO: All departments / DATE: 3rd April, 2019.
To whom it may concern,
I told you I would make a double album one day!
Nobody believed me.
Jeff Lynne, eat your heart out…
It has synthesisers. And songs about synthesisers.
But don’t panic. It also has guitars, orchestras, accordions, and songs about love and greed.
Phew…
It is peopled with a shiny new cast of my imaginary friends (and enemies):
East Anglian lovers and historical re-enactors, Norman and Norma.
Sir Hillary Oldmoney, a complete banker if ever there was one.
The outrageously selfish ‘Opportunity’ Knox. He jumps queues, annoys party goers and would kill for a promotion.
Christine, who makes excellent photocopies but whose office romance has gone south.
A pair of furniture removers and part-time minimalist composers named Philip and Steve.
Even a certain Billy Bird has squirrelled his way back into proceedings.
But the central characters in Office Politics are the machines.
Machines that do this, machines that do that. Machines that will smother us all in our sleep.
Perhaps the raging battle of instrumentation and musical genres on the album is a subconscious reflection of this conflict.
Perhaps this increasingly crazy world has sent me scurrying to the new wave and synthpop of my youth for comfort.
Perhaps I was just bored.
I’m sorry it’s all so crazy. I do try to make normal pop records.
But it always seems to wander off into odd territories when I’m not concentrating.
All I can say is…
I told you I would make a double album one day!!!
Signed: Neil Hannon, Head Of Communications
Tracklisting:
- Queuejumper
- Office Politics
- Norman And Norma
- Absolutely Obsolete
- Infernal Machines
- You’ll Never Work In This Town Again
- Psychological Evaluation
- The Synthesiser Service Centre Super Summer Sale
- The Life And Soul Of The Party
- A Feather In Your Cap
- I’m A Stanger Here
- Dark Days Are Here Again
- Philip And Steve’s Furniture Removal Company
- ‘Opportunity’ Knox
- After The Lord Mayor’s Show
- When The Working Day Is Done