The Duckworth Lewis Method

An album of songs about cricket by Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy? That's too good to be true.

But it is true. Spin magazine reports:

Hannon has collaborated with Tom Walsh of fellow (but less well-known) sprightly Dublin popsters Pugwash on a project called ‘The Duckworth Lewis Method.’ And it is rather good: 12 genuinely good tunes that just happen to be about surreal cricketing topics.

There’s a song from the point of view of Mike Gatting as he faces up to Shane Warne’s Ball of the Century (’Jiggery Pokery’); there’s a song about going on the hippy trail to Pakistan in a Camper Van with the express intent of meeting Javed Miandad (’Meeting Mr Miandad’); while ‘The Age of Revolution’ seems to cover former Empire countries beating England at their own game and the upsurge of pyjama cricket: “Always denied entry by the English gentry/now we’re driving Bentleys and playing Twenty20.”

There is a website devoted to the album and a full review on Airstrip One.