The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon: Q&A

In the last few days of summer, The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon released his 13th album, the stunning Rainy Sunday Afternoon —just when his fans needed his sage, witty, and heartfelt perspective the most.

Rainy Sunday Afternoon, arrives in the nick of time, when the news cycle is at a permanent nadir and every day promises a new tempest. Hannon's songs gently remind his listeners to step away from doomscrolling and reconnect with loved ones, family, and friends. He's not a sentimentalist, but here he powerfully explores memory, mortality, and devotion with tenderness and nimble truthfulness. 

Tonight at 11p.m. on "UKNY," I'll spend most of the hour in conversation with Hannon, with songs from this gorgeous record, which arrived on September 19 on Hannon's Divine Comedy Records. Rainy Sunday Afternoon debuted at No. 4 on the UK album charts and at No. 1 on the Independent album charts,

For this album, the Irish singer and songwriter made a canny decision to take the cash earned from his work on "Wonka" — Hannon wrote seven original songs for Paul King's 2023 musical movie  — and invest in time spent recording at Abbey Road Studios, his dream locale.

Hannon hasn't toured the States in about 20 years — so I met with him in London on a sweltering day in August, in a tiny podcast studio at Frequency coffee shop near King's Cross, for a conversation about Rainy Sunday Afternoon. Hannon frequently writes about his family and his late dad, Bishop Brian Hannon, looms large on this record; Neil and I talk about what it means to lose a parent to Alzheimer's disease, wistfully addressed on Hannon's elegiac "The Last Time I Saw the Old Man."

We also chatted about his musician daughter, who joins him on backing vocals on "Invisible Thread," the golden ticket of working on "Wonka," and the appeal of writing a scathing song about a certain Floridian residence and club. 

[Recorded: 8/11/25; Produced by Kara Manning]