Neil Hannon, aka The Divine Comedy, has both annoyed and charmed critics (often within the same song). Reviews of his most recent album, Bang Goes The Knighthood (released in Europe last May, now released in the US but only via iTunes) have described the split like this:

"Divine Comedy albums are always an arm-wrestle between two incompatible personas. One is the elegant and witty balladeer, a precocious hybrid of Scott Walker and Randy Newman, heard on such commanding cuts as The Dogs & the Horses and Sunrise. The other is the insufferably bumptious japester queasily evocative of Gilbert O'Sullivan, most notably culpable for the enragingly jaunty sing-along National Express (which, rather depressingly, remains The Divine Comedy's biggest hit)."

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posted by ericthegardener on Jul 28, 2010 - 35 comments

"If you like orchestral music and have a heart in your fucking chest, you will like this record." Mike Patton, former front man of Faith No More, frequent John Zorn collaborator, founding member of Mr. Bungle, is releasing an album covering old Italian pop songs in May, called Mondo Cane. A live performance can be streamed from Youtube. [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich on Apr 16, 2010 - 42 comments

A Cello Rondo A cello piece digitally combined from 37 different cello parts all played by the same musician. With funky video. [Qucktime, 45mb], [Quicktime, 22mb]. Other formats available through the link. via Digg.
posted by ontic on Feb 26, 2006 - 17 comments

Classic Cat describes itself as "the free classical music directory," and offers links to 3rd-party-hosted downloadable recordings, sliced and diced by hits, composer, performer, and more. There are active fora. Given the old-school look of the site, I was surprised not to find it in my repost search.
posted by mwhybark on Feb 13, 2005 - 13 comments