What do you think of The Beautiful South?

Rotterdam gives me weird anxiety. It's almost aggressively bland, to the point where it actually starts to sound quite sinister. Alongside The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics and You're Gorgeous by Babybird, it also gives me flashbacks to being a child stuck in the back seat of my parents car.

Other than that they have their moments. Don't Marry Her (Fuck Me) is a lot of fun and some of the early stuff is nice.
 
I have more respect for Paul Heaton than for 99.9% of other people in music. Some of the songs have dated a bit but Heaton acknowledges this and just doesn't perform them any more. He's intellectually robust and has a working moral compass.

Old Red Eyes Is Back is magnificent, genuinely moving and a brave single.
 
"Old Red he died...and every single landlord in the district cried" is brutal.
 
I remember my Dad giving me a tape of their album saying ā€˜have a listen and see if you know any of theseā€™ and me expecting it to be some hot bop mixtape.

I was severely disappointed but Iā€™ve grown to love them over the years and got tickets for my parents to go see the tour for Christmas last year. He asked for tickets to Adele and I sent him to Doncaster so I feel weā€™ve equalled disappointment scores.
 
Happy Xmas (VoR is Over!) said:
Rotterdam gives me weird anxiety. It's almost aggressively bland, to the point where it actually starts to sound quite sinister.
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listening to this rather fabulous, very mid 90s and entirely non-sinister song right now (it features an accordion for fuck's sake!) and cackling at the memory of this post :D
 
I saw a lovely little play called 'Rotterdam' once which featured the song, so it always reminds me of that.
 
Better than I gave them credit for at the time. Had a listen while reading Sylvia Pattersonā€™s memoir.
 
Seriously though, some songs were okay but many had deeply problematic lyrics towards women e.g. Song For Whoever, Perfect 10, Don't Marry Her.
 
ā€œDonā€™t marry her, fuck meā€ would work better as a lyric from a gay man
 
Suedeyā€™s Boy Child said:
Seriously though, some songs were okay but many had deeply problematic lyrics towards women e.g. Song For Whoever, Perfect 10, Don't Marry Her.
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Re: Perfect 10, I just had a little read through to refresh myself. The "anorexic chicks" verse doesn't really hold up, but the rest of it I get as man/woman middle aged satirical humour. I wouldn't ever put them down as a problematic band.
 
R Sleigh N said:
ā€œDonā€™t marry her, fuck meā€ would work better as a lyric from a gay man
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That is the original lyric, the clean version was done for the single so radio would play it.

I donā€™t think Perfect 10 sexist at all. The lyrics cover a few body matters both male and female. I think itā€™s meant with humour.
 
Suedeyā€™s Boy Child said:
Seriously though, some songs were okay but many had deeply problematic lyrics towards women e.g. Song For Whoever, Perfect 10, Don't Marry Her.
Click to expand...

Heaton talked about this in that documentary that was made a few years ago. He acknowledges 2 songs in particular that he had arguments about with Brianna Corrigan - he now refuses to perform or include 36DD in any any capacity.

Song For Whoever is more about how the music industry uses women as objects than a contribution to doing exactly that. In the 80s, it was still very common for an album cover to have a picture of a usually scantily clad woman who was nothing to do with the band or the music. Heaton caught how this tied in with the soulless love songs for no-one that were cluttering up the charts at the time and the result came within one position of being a charttopper itself.
 
Just popped Carry Up On The Charts on. I remember enjoying it back in the day. The first three tracks are a treat.
 
36D I can sort of understand, from memory I think Paul Heaton said he probably wouldn't write it now as it seemed to blame the women as much as the industry, but I'd hardly say it was problematic :D
 
santaphone said:
Heaton talked about this in that documentary that was made a few years ago. He acknowledges 2 songs in particular that he had arguments about with Brianna Corrigan - he now refuses to perform or include 36DD in any any capacity.
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Oh yes I forgot about 36D. Awful lyrics.
 
OK fair enough - point taken about Song For Whoever.
I still stand by my assessment of 36D (simply vile), Don't Marry Her (it is written by two men; yes I accept suspicion of disbelief, but given their track record I thought this was a bit problematic) and Perfect 10 ('anorexic chick' line).
 
And there might be more in terms of album tracks and stuff. I've not really gone into their catalogue in much detail beyond Carry On Up The Charts and Blue Is The Colour.
 
bah ronbug said:
36D I can sort of understand, from memory I think Paul Heaton said he probably wouldn't write it now as it seemed to blame the women as much as the industry, but I'd hardly say it was problematic :D
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That's exactly what he said. He blamed the workers and you don't blame the workers.
 
OK fine:

1. A Little Time
2. Old Red Eyes is Back
3. Mirror
4. Pretenders to the Throne
5. Don't Marry Her
6. I'll Sail This Ship Alone
7. Bell Bottomed Tear
8. Rotterdam
9. You Keep It All In
10. Blackbird on the Wire
 
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