Q Review

Like certain football teams and political parties, supporting The Beautiful South involves a commitment that goes beyond merely liking the tunes. They embody something very unspun, un-premeditated, unmetropolitan - Dennis Skinner in a world of Charlie Whelans. In practice, this means fighting their corner in pubs while acknowledging that some of the criticisms of the band can ring true. The good news for the faithful then is that Painting It Red may be their best album yet. With more than 19 tracks and an hour and 20 minutes of music, there are, naturally, some longueurs, but not many in a bran tub of jokes, (it)joie de vivre(unit) and melancholy spliced with the strongest tunes of their career. Advance publicity promising a back-to-basics album is misleading. Musically, it's adventurous and rich with the kind of detail they've sometimes lacked in the past. Hit Parade's delicious arrangement is punctuated with basso profundo strings. You Can Call Me Leisure is complex and imaginative at every turn, while Half-Hearted's harpsichord and layered harmonies could come straight out of a '60s Left Banke record. Then there's a cussed rejection of rock's standard subject matter (self-obsessed angst, sexual whinging) and a focussing on the oddly quotidian. You Can't Tuck It In is a companion piece to Quench's biggest hit Perfect Ten and another erotic celebration of the big-boned and bonny. Just Checkin' is a rollicking funk tribute to widows still in the habit of scouring the pubs for their reprobate late husbands. Mediterranean is a hymn to the restorative power of nature; specifically how the titular sea helped vocalist Paul Heaton quit booze and drugs. Sobriety would seem to agree with him, which is bad news for Hull's publicans. Many of their peers distrust The Beautiful South; it must be galling to the leather of trouser and the knotted of brow that these oiks dressed like binmen on their way to a kickabout are the most popular British songwriting team since Lennon & McCartney. In a land where pampered Sloanes are people's princesses and wealthy landowners people's protestors, The Beautiful South are more People's Republic. Ultimately, though, they are the nearest thing we have to a people's band.**** (4 STARS)
Stuart Maconie