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. |
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 |
