NEIL Hannon has been making orchestral pop albums under the arch moniker of The Divine Comedy since emerging from Northern Ireland in 1989.

In those 27 years, he has remained a singular indie talent, a whimsical life force adrift from the fashions of the time yet able to steer a song about a bus company into the heart of the charts.

Hannon has spun two cracking cricketing albums in collaboration with Pugwash's Thomas Walsh, composed a score for the Bristol Old Vic's musical adaptation of Swallows & Amazons and collaborated with Frank Alva Buecheler on the chamber opera In May. Yet The Divine Comedy flame still burns brightest, as Neil returns to this familiar homestead six years after 2010's Bang Goes The Knighthood for a Divine 11th studio set.

Full of "lush landscapes and tales of the heart", it no more belongs to 2016 than Bang Goes The Knighthood belonged to 2010. Instead, its dozen delights glide above such pedestrian constraints, as he sings of Catherine The Great and the French Foreign Legion with dexterity and wit and panache, taking liberties with history while being bang on about matters of the heart.

He can remind you of Noel Coward, Lionel Bart, Ian Dury and Cole Porter too, along with the intelligent, cynical spark of Dylan Moran, and his theatricality places him at odds with so much of the T-shirt and jean rock world around.

All power to Hannon, however, who has a playfulness and love of romance that makes his records such a joy. Who can resist the Cuban heels reference in Napoleon Complex; the badinage with Cathy Davey in Funny Peculiar; the confessional honesty of How Can You Leave Me On My Own; the love-struck finale of The One Who Loves?

Stay awhile amid the urbane charms of Foreverland.

The Divine Comedy play Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on October 11 and The Foundry in Sheffield on October 15. Box office: thedivinecomedy.com