The Divine Comedy (album) - Release and Promotion

Release and Promotion

Before the album's release, SBK Records released an EP called "Music from the forthcoming album "The Divine Comedy" featuring five songs from the album, they were: "Gentleman Who Fell", "It's Your Life", "Bang Your Head", "Clock" and the traditional song "In a Glade". The album was released in 1994 during April 5 and 8 in CD edition. Jovovich toured the United States during most of 1994 to promote the album, opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket and Crash Test Dummies, as well as playing smaller acoustic sets. Jovovich had opted to perform in smaller and more intimate settings, turning down a musical appearance on Saturday Night Live.

The Divine Comedy Tour comprised 3 Legs and 50 Shows in total. The tour began with a small concert at the Borderline in London on 2 January 1994. The 1st leg if followed by twenty-two shows, occurred in North America, at bars and cafes. The 2nd and 3rd legs followed by fourteen shows both, occurred in North America too.

Three singles were released from the album, "Bang Your Head", "It's Your Life" and "Gentleman Who Fell", which charted at #21 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Two music videos were produced for it, the first version is shown more like a children's story in color and directed by Lisa Bonet. Milla wasn't pleased with the result and filmed another more artistic one in black and white. "Gentleman Who Fell" appears on the soundtracks for The Leading Man and Rules of Attraction; "It's Your Life" appears on the soundtrack for the Randal Kleiser film It's My Party Milla also made a tour to support the album. "Bang Your Head" was released in 1994 by SBK.

"The Alien Song" is in the 1993 Richard Linklater film Dazed and Confused. "In a Glade" plays on many of the in-game radios in the Oblivion Lost mod of the game Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl which takes place in Ukraine.

"The Divine Comedy" is a reference to the epic poem by Dante Alighieri of the same name. The "Divine Comedy" is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect in which it is written as the standardized Italian. It is divided into three parts, the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, like Milla does in her album, the first track "Alien Song" tell's about hell (Inferno). Milla said:

"When I was first working on the sketch for the album cover my mom introduced me to a young Russian artist named Alexis Steele. I looked at his sketch for the cover and I saw that struggle - all the struggle that I'm singing about. It IS the divine comedy."

Jovovich had chosen the title after seeing Russian artist Alexis Steele's proposed cover artwork sketch for the then untitled album.