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 pools 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