REVIEW: Beautiful South, Blue is the Colour (Go! Discs/Ark21)
- Rey Roldan
With their stillborn US career still not on the up & up and their UK career stabilizing, the surprisingly overlooked Beautiful South have released another batch of irony-laden, spiky lovesongs that skewer their way into alcohol-drenched hearts. With this their fifth full-length (not including Best-of collection Carry on Up the Charts , which was hugely successful everywhere EXCEPT the US), Paul Heaton, Dave Hemingway and Jacqueline Abbott harmonize their way through the 12 tracks effortlessly... and there lies the main problem. Instead of expanding their trademark, easily listening-style of melodies and sweet vocals with ferociously toothy lyrics, they follow their formula as if by rote, without any hint of challenge.
"One God" echoes much of Miaow , their most staid album of hooky but smooth and non-bumpy pop songs. Lyrically about the need for more than a singular God ("There's only one God/ There should be two or three"), the song hits a country-western snag and gets caught up in the torch and twang. The smoky, lounge-bar vibe of "Alone" has a shuffling beat that suits Heaton's wine-soaked Bluesy vocals perfectly, showcasing their oft-examined theme of marriage gone boring. But the real stand-out is Heaton's turn at becoming the next Shane MacGowen but gruffing up his voice and sounding like a drunkard who has consumed a few too many tequila shots in "Liar's Bar". With his normal voice an uncharacteristic growl, Heaton pummels his way through a tale about a travelling salesman who seems to always go into to random bars for one drink and ending up with twenty empty glasses in front of him (echoes of a travelling "Old Red Eyes Is Back" from 0898 ).
The first single "Don't Marry Her" carries the shock-value tactic that the band has never explored before with the inclusion of a vulgarity. Within their earlier material, they have escaped the easy route by offering cute euphemisms or image-laden irony. In its stead, they offer the charming line "Don't marry her/ Fuck me." Whether this cheapens their normally reserved vision or brings it to another level is up for debate, but as a single, it offers little enjoyment for the puritanical mass media.
All in all, Blue Is the Colour follows in Beautiful South's tradition of lite pop songs quipped with a poison pen. Fans and followers will embrace this while others may find it a bit "too provincial". Compared to the full slate of albums, file this one before after their first three albums but before the inferior Miaow .
