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Welcome To... The Beautiful South
was the band's debut album. It saw it's way to number 2 in the
Charts, thanks to the Chart success of Song For Whoever and You Keep
It All In. I'll Sail This Ship Alone was another single taken
from the album.
This album has topped many polls as the Fan's favourite boasting the
fabulous Woman In The Wall.
Song
For Whoever,
Have
You Ever Been Away.
I'll Sail This Ship Alone,
Girlfriend,
From Under The Covers
Straight In At No. 37,
You Keep It All In.
Woman In The Wall,
Oh Blackpool.
Love Is,
I Love You (But You're Boring)
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Q Review
Paul Heaton is a
stroppy UK pop subversive of genius. The skifflebased indie guitar
melodies of the singer's first band The Housemartins twinkled into
the charts before anyone noticed the barbed lefty lyrics, hidden by
a wacky image. His new group The Beautiful South (also including
Housemartins drummer Dave Hemingway) work to a similar plan though,
on the evidence of their first LP, on a wider musical canvas. Side
one's first track, the single Song For Whoever is a neat
introduction, serving both as an attack on cynical songsmiths, and a
heartfelt ballad. More representative of the desire to stretch out
are the shimmering African guitar of Woman In The Wall, Have You
Ever Been Away's syncopated jazz beat, and the piano ballad I'll
Sail This Ship Alone, though with titles like I Love You But You're
Boring, irony is never far off. On this form the Hull-based band
will hit paydirt quick, yet they're unlikely to become admirers of
the prosperous South-East.**** (4 STARS)
Henry Williams
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