Choirboy Comes of Age

9 Oct 1998
Written by Adrian Thrills

Courtesy of G. Dipper

The Beautiful South finally overcame the longest-running jinx in British pop when their current single, Perfect 10, soared to No. 2 in the charts: the record was the Hull group's first Top Ten hit to star founder member and co-songwriter Paul Heaton on lead vocals.

All the band's previous triumphs - which include the 1990 chart-topper A Little Time, Song For Whoever and Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) - have featured either Dave Hemingway, Jacqueline Abbott or former vocalist Briana Corrigan as the dominant singer.

The singles on which Heaton has taken the lead, including My Book and Liar's Bar, have always flopped.

The success of Perfect 10 - a rasping musical debate about sexual politics, neatly driven along by funky piano and honking sax - is a perfect prelude to Quench, the seventh Beautiful South album since the group formed from the ashes of the Housemartins ten years ago. For Quench is emphatically Paul Heaton's album.

Heaton, who has the voice of a sweet, soulful choirboy, co-produces for the first time and is the pivotal singer on almost every track.

On How Long's A Tear Take To Dry he links with Abbott for a typical kitchen-sink drama. On Big Coin, he sings solo. And, in his most commanding performance, he is supported by a gospel choir and lush strings on The Slide.

Quench is a typical Beautiful South album in its blend of honey-coated harmony and clever, caustic lyrics.

Among the macabre topics tackled beneath the jaunty musical veneer are suicide (The Lure Of The Sea), alcoholism (Window Shopping For Blinds) and the habitual run of domestic disputes. Even by the band's morose lyrical standards, however, Quench is a bitter, downbeat affair.

But their glum views, which are mollified by the sarcastic wit of songwriters Heaton and guitarist Dave Rotheray, still strike a chord: Perfect 10, the most upbeat song here, is still in the top three, and 3 million record-buyers own Carry On Up The Charts, the band's 1994 compilation. It's arguably their very ordinariness that makes them so appealing.

With the addition of Heaton's former Housemartins colleague Norman Cook as a "rhythm consultant", and a greater use of orchestral strings, the sextet make the odd departure on Quench.

Cook's influence can be detected in the lively, Latin-tinged jazz of Losing Things while Window Shopping For Blinds grafts symphonic strings and a pulsating bass onto the country-rock rhythm which remains a band hallmark.

But The Beautiful South have not built their reputation on rhythmic power or musical innovation. They stand or fall on the quality of their songwriting and for the most part, this is well up to standard on Quench.

And, with the impassioned voice of the resurgent Heaton the star attraction for the first time in ten years, The Beautiful South should be carrying on up the charts for a while yet.