Released on:
The Isness
The Isness & The Otherness
The Isness (The Abbey Road Version)
Also known as:
Little Miss Divinity
Runtime: 7:27 (Final), 7:58 (Mispress), 7:56 (Abbey Road)
In 1999, Freedom Management mentioned to Nick Woodfine for his website that a new single was ready to go, called ‘Little Miss Divinity’. In hindsight, maybe alarm bells should have started ringing with that title, but then again, FSOL had always gone with odd track names. This would have really come out of the blue if it had been lead single. By far the least FSOL-sounding track on The Isness, ‘Divinity’ is an eight minute acoustic ballad. Opening with a tin whistle, the track moves into warm, major key guitar chords, over the top of which the assembled band improvise for a few minutes. Then the big arrangement breaks down, either into piano chords on the final mix, or a guitar solo on the Abbey Road Version. And then Gaz starts singing. This is maybe the second point on the album where some fans decided to get off; it’s a bit of a love/hate song, and I’ve heard some absolute vitriol aimed at it (“song of pain” being one amusing description). Gaz’s vocals come in for a bit of stick at times, but I’m generally very fond of them; not here, however. His slightly nasal delivery does nothing positive for me at all, and I generally stick to the 2003/2004 versions with the new vocal take. That said, many people absolutely adore this version. Not bringing drums in until well over halfway through is a brave move.
The lyrics are about self-love – “Little Miss Divinity / You’re the one that you’ve been looking for” – being content through accepting who you are, despite any limitations you may perceive in yourself. It’s a wonderful message, and conveyed pretty well really: I do think “You have time / You’re doing fine” is an absolutely lovely refrain. The melody is gorgeous, and the production and arrangement are stunning: the reverb on the claps, the brilliant placing of the pizzicato strings in the mix; it’s a great pairing of Gaz’s song and Brian’s engineering and mixing. The final mix does have a very slightly jarring moment at 6:27 where eight bars are cut, and anyone familiar enough with the Abbey Road Version will spot the moment two different sitar melodies are stuck together. It sticks out like a sore thumb for me. For that reason alone, I prefer the Abbey Road Version.
When the Abbey Road Version received an official release in 2018, ‘Divinity’ was renamed to ‘Little Miss Divinity’, with different vocal arrangements over the outro section because… well, it’s the sort of thing they do. A version was recorded with Donovan on vocals, and bizarrely remains unreleased.
Credits
Written by Cobain, Dougans.
Produced by The Future Sound of London.
Engineered by Yage and Stone Freshwaters at The Galaxial Pharmaceutical.
Voice and 12 string guitar recordings made at Stepping Stone Nov ’98, engineered by Stix.
Orchestration – Max Richter.
Violins – Alex Balanescu, Clio Gould.
Viola – Levine Andrade.
Cello – Sue Monks.
Flugel Horn – Phillip Bainbridge.
Female vox – Christine Charly.
Electric guitars – Gary Lucas, Stinky Rowe.
Sitar, dilruba, tablas and intro tin whistle – Baluji Shrivastav.
Hammond and 8 voice mellotron choir – Mikey Rowe.
Bass – Randy Hope-Taylor.
Gospel Choir – Nu Colours.
Brass – Chris Margary, Fayaz Virgi, Kevin Robinson.
Fractional Difference 