To Die A Virgin is the sound of Neil Hannon enjoying himself. Opening with a sample from The Camomile Lawn, Hannon's lyrics are as tongue-in-cheek camp as anything he's done: "You don't know how much I need you/The Handy Andies I've been through" is just one of the most choice of them.
The track opens current album Victory For The Comic Muse in some style and ramps up the Casanova-era brass parps to the max - it's a far more obvious single than its predecessor, the relatively insipid Diva Lady.
Will tales of London maidens and young men fantasising about them to messy effect return Hannon to the singles chart? With Top of the Pops over and done with, maybe having a hit single doesn't matter as much as it did when Hannon first pricked the nation's consciousness back in 1996, but if any track from the current record can do it, this is the one.
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