When Johnny Marr's cool outweighed Stephen Patrick's mouth

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

13/03/20 : Manchester Calling - Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott


I'm a big fan of The Beautiful South's greatest hits album, Carry On Up The Charts - it's got some cracking tracks on it.  But have I ever listened to an actual album of theirs?  Maybe Blue Is The Colour, but I can't remember anything about it.  And then they split up, which they amusingly announced as being due to "musical similarities".  I think I've heard the odd thing from Mr Heaton, but I can't say I've particularly noticed it - I assume he's been pretty much carrying on in the same vein.  So that's what I'm expecting here as he gets back together with one of them Beautiful Southers (she was the one on "Don't Marry Her", as opposed to Briana Corrigan who was the one on "A Little Time").  

And yeah, it pretty much is - maybe slightly more of a folky-country twang to it these days, but still in the same wry vein.  It's all perfectly listenable but not particularly memorable, I'm afraid -  and certainly not enough to tempt me away from their former glories.

We're at #1 in the charts though, with a new entry which managed three weeks before disappearing.  Other new entries in the top ten were Lil Uzi Vert (#3 and I'm intrigued as to the noise he/she/they make), Deacon Blue (#4, also intrigued as to what this sounds like - very Radio 2 I imagine) and Lauv (#9 - yes, it's a hat-trick of intrigue).

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album other than that it was written across many different countries, the critics liked it and it did well here and absolutely nowhere else.  It does also tell me this is their fourth album together - wow, the first three really passed me by.  "Customers also listened to" The Beautiful South and The Housemartins (a very under-rated band imho) - no idea why, eh?  This was all perfectly fine and definitely more if you're in the mood for it and listen to the lyrics - but I didn't.

06/03/20 - Less bland than I was expecting
20/03/20 - Not exactly my usual kind of thing

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