I don't think they were ever hip but there is genuine songcraft in there. "Carry On.." is all you need and I really like it. An "unguilty pleasure" perhaps.
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The Beautiful South
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- Mar 2008
- 20753
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The Beautiful South
Evening Reverend, glad to oblige
Heaton (singer/ lyrics) is obviously a bit of a wab (misogyny, alcoholism, invented tales of running with Sheff Utd's teenage hoolie firm). But to be fair he owns up to it all, and the three-part boy-girl harmonies are good.
Top Five
I'll sail this ship alone
Just a few things
Prettiest Eyes
Tupperware queen
Good as gold
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The Beautiful South
Never really understood the appeal. Heaton and co always sounded too self-consciously knowing and smug to me - from that tiresomely-ironic name outwards.
I can think of dozens of 'whimsical' (and left-leaning) pop acts that I prefer - Scritti, Lightning Seeds, Belle & Sebastian, etc - and I wouldn't describe myself as a huge fan of any of them.
If I'm feeling really generous I might just about allow Sail This Ship Alone or You Keep It All In. But generally there just seems so little with which to engage or empathise in Beautiful South's output.
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The Beautiful South
I always had time for them, having come across songs like A Little Time, Song For Whoever and Good As Gold on the radio from the age of about 14 and acquired the Carry On Up The Charts compilation a couple of years later. Several really lovely songs in their canon that undercut the (slightly tiresome) canard about their constant "irony", "cleverness", whimsy etc., too, e.g.:
I'll Sail This Ship Alone (as has been mentioned)
Old Red Eyes Is Back
Bell Bottomed Tear
One Last Love Song
Blackbird On The Wire
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The Beautiful South
I spent the academic year 1988-89 studying in the US, I came back for my final year at my Northern english uni, i had never heard of them before but the beautiful south were massive.
bu a curious quirk of fate, i then did a post grad at hull uni and lived on the famous grafton street in hull right opposite the housemartin house. heaton still had the house, think he also lived elsewhere.
went out for a pint with him a few times, wasnt a bad bloke to be honest
their hits were not bad, rotterdam, perfect 10, don't marry her, you keep it all in
this is my fav
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The Beautiful South
Never liked them, like I never liked Alan Bennett. They sold more records than sort of everyone in the 90s, didn't they? That feedback loop of making boring and polite songs about being boring and polite which sort of seem to mock the boring and polite without hinting that it's possible to be any other way - who is that for? The boring and polite, I suppose.
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