Defend The Indefensible: The Beautiful South

-The Hideous North

Actually if you read your original post I'm sure you'd be be ashamed at its presumptuous, exuberant, bolloxicity.

I'd like to withdraw the vehemence of last night's statement but retain the sentiment.

The Beautiful South invented indie.

Or at least what we nowadays see as "indie" in the top 40, Diet Coke Zero-drinking, Tim Lovejoy-quoting ViewPigeonDetectivesKaiserChiefsRazorlightMilburn bands. Britpop as influencing modern indie is the biggest music critic red herring ever invented. 80s indie influnces + "I am soooooo drunk" lyrics + hoolie appreciation = both.

i remember quite liking paul heaton's solo album thing he did in 2001.

Something about biscuits and asylum seekers, yes?

i agree with tom that the beautiful south are the worst band ever produced by britain. they're the aural equivalent of that time travelling sitcom that starred nicholas lyndhurst and the fat guy from 'bread'. or 'my hero'.
-- pulpo, Monday, 18 August 2003 09:24 (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

that makes them sound like the second best band ever thou. the best band ever would sound like "the piglet files".

The Beautiful South invented Belle & Sebastian but that's about it. Unfortunately.

There was that letter into the NME in about 1998 that was just a list of Beautiful South/B&S similarities. They lost me about the same time they claimed that "A Perfect 10" and "String Bean Jen" were basically the same song.

That's pretty small.

"Song for Whoever" may be the smuggest song ever as well. Not sure if that's "in a good way".

They were great when Brianna was there ("Would you still love me if I lost my legs?"= classic!) but after that I totz stopped paying attention...I hate that new chick.

Indefensible? C'mon, the first four albums are full of gems. I loved the whole iron fist in a velvet glove thing. Lyrical bile presented in a public-friendly muzak style. And it sold! I just bought the BBC Sessions, lots of their best tracks. They lost me after -Miaow- though.

Paul Heaton's, Dave Rotheray's and Sean Welch's audio commentary on the Munch DVD is one of the most entertaining I've ever heard (the videos themselves though are almost all complete shite, which kind of helped).

This is definitely a question that means something different in the US than in the UK. In the US they've just been another British indie band that never sold very well, but that a few Anglophiliac college kids dug. (I was one of in the early 1990s.) The voices aren't remarkably bad...I'd even say they're great compared to the competition at that level of UK import at the time (e.g. Charlatans, Soup Dragons). I still love the first record, esp. "From Under the Covers", which inexplicably utterly destroyed me when I moved far from home to college. "36D", "We Are Each Other", the cover of "Girlfriend" on the first record...these are catchy, bouncy pop. From what I'm seeing on the thread the band comes with a lot of cultural baggage in the UK, but I don't think this ever translated over here (thankfully).

"Song for Whoever" may be the smuggest song ever as well. In a great way.

By the way, if you thought Heaton or anyone who wrote songs was the problem: http://www.newbeautifulsouth.co.uk/

I'd kind of forgotten how great "My Book" and "We Are Each Other" are.

My mind is kinda blown at noting Lex talking about how he doesn't mind them way upthread!

this revive was spawned by a coworker IMing me "What was that song that started 'I love you from the bottom of my pencil case'?" and me going on a Youtube binge shortly thereafter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Beautiful_South

also I'd never seen the alternate album cover, lololol

"prevent the hoards of impressionable young fans from blowing their heads off in a gun-gobbling frenzy, or taking up smoking"

Indeed.

I am hoping that isn't a US/UK spelling thing and that they really do mean hoards of fans

The New Beautiful South have changed their name to 'The South'.
You can find The South at www.thesouth.uk.com
Its all about the songs!

Thank you

first album is still a monster

"Sail This Ship Alone" and "Woman in the Wall" are just... yeah I dig shit like that.

This is a band that I ought to have loved, but I am largely indifferent. A bit too pastoral maybe, but some of their songs are ace. "Song For Whoever" is still a classic.

The singles compilation is all anyone needs IMO, but that contains some of the finest pop songs I've ever heard. The two extra tracks slung on the end to ensnare the completists, "Prettiest Eyes" and "One Last Love Song", are very moving. I love the swell, grit and movement of this band.

edit: one extra track. "Prettiest Eyes" was not new.

I must be getting old but Beautiful South are starting to sound really good to me! I remember hating them along with everyone else but now the smoke has cleared I'm not sure why...

From the bottom of my pencil case,
AdamRL

Try listening to 'Amsterdam' all the way through without getting the urge to break something.

OK I'll try that now

Rotterdam?

OK. So the lyrics are TERRIBLE, the singing is mawkish, but the guitar is kind of cheery and inoffensive. Some OK canned strings too. Catchy chorus you have to say.

Some problems but I don't feel like breaking anything but a world record for AWESOMENESS

Lyrics sometimes read like Larkin without the talent.

But of course picking on song lyrics for not being poetry is unfair. I started listening to them because Xgau told us to, before I knew they were uncool. Still like them, although always kind of hated the cover art. Went to see them once, they came out on stage and Paul said "Jacqui's gone missing" - she had just quit- and our hearts sank. The show was alright, but it was kind of like listening to the stereo with only one of the channels working.

they probly went on too long but the first 3 or 4 albums are uniformly great. am i biased? probably but fuck it.

covers album near the end is also great.

Jacqui finally returned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60s47twOm2I&feature=related

I just listened to "Rotterdam" and I have absolutely no need to break something.

If I need to break something, should I listen to some Captain Beefheart or James Brown instead then?

I think back on my days when I started buying Beautiful South albums. I did so for two reasons: 1) I kind of liked the Housemartins second album and figured it would be a more fleshed out idea of that record and 2) They were absurdly cheap used. Think I had the first three or four albums at one point. I actually listened to them a lot. This was about a decade ago, maybe?

Anyway, I remember nothing about them except for two things (both presumably from the first album, if I recall): 1) Their surprisingly convincing cover of Pebbles' 'Girlfriend' and 2) That one song about, "6am and even Big Ben is trying to put his head down"; that one was decent.

Other than that, the only thing I really remember is how aggressively middle of the road the actual music sounded. It's like he was trying to do the music boring, overproduced pop music he could, in order to get away with some occasionally "controversial" lyrics. I honestly have no clue what I was doing by forcing the band on myself the way I did for nearly a year.

Just dreadfully vapid music.

I like "Song for Whoever" a lot.

The first album is great IMO

It's like he was trying to do the music boring, overproduced pop music he could, in order to get away with some occasionally "controversial" lyrics.

I think it's basically this, except that the two of them really seriously liked a) pleasing-sounding MOR pop music, and b) other pleasing-sounding MOR pop music that also had dark or vicious lyrics