The Housemartins /The Beautiful South Soup The Housemartins Condensed / Cream Of The Beautiful South

The Housemartins/The Beautiful South Soup The Housemartins Condensed/Cream Of The Beautiful South

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Featuring a picture of can of soup on the cover, the top half titled "The Housemartins Condensed" and the bottom half "The Cream of the Beautiful South," the album known as Soup was rather biased toward the latter of Paul Heaton's groups with just seven of 22 tracks from only two of the Housemartins' albums, London 0 Hull 4 (named after the fact that there were four of them and they were from Hull) and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death. That's not a lot, considering that during their brief existence, the Housemartins only achieved seven Top 40 hits, all of which are included here except their cover of "There Is Always Something There to Remind Me." The band was more influential than its chart success would have indicated. Both the Housemartins' other major hits were included, the bouncy, jolly "Happy Hour" and the a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love," along with lesser hits "Five Get Over Excited," "Me and the Farmer," and "Build." Fifteen of the 22 tracks here are devoted to Heaton's second and even more commercially successful band, the Beautiful South. With nine Top Ten albums behind them, the Beautiful South had achieved more radio-friendly hits and continued to enjoy play on easy listening stations long after their peak in the early '90s. Songs such as "Song for Whoever," "You Keep It All In," "A Little Time," "Rotterdam," "Don't Marry Her," and "Perfect 10" are all here, along with some lesser hits spread throughout their career from 1989 to 2003. The Housemartins have not been very well served by their highly visible greatest-hits campaigns, including the low-key release Best Of in 2004 and Now That's What I Call Quite Good! (a parody title of Now That's What I Call Music, the compilation series) in 1988. The Beautiful South, however, had enjoyed one of the biggest-selling albums of the '90s with Carry on Up the Charts, and Solid Bronze had also been a successful hits compilation, but Soup is the first time that both of Paul Heaton's bands' songs had been brought together.

The Beautiful South Welcome To The Beautiful South Japan

The Beautiful South Welcome To The Beautiful South

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The Beautiful South Make a list of the qualities that define great pop music and you've got a pretty fair description of the Beautiful South's debut release. From the first track to the last, the album brims with good old-fashioned melodies, the kind of chirpy, slightly jazzy music that helps get a person out of bed in the morning. Lead singer Paul Heaton mixes the high-register emoting of a '50s teen heartthrob with more sophisticated soul, in the style of Fine Young Cannibals vocalist Roland Gift. Harmonies and guitar solos, like carefully rationed punctuation, enhance Heaton's singing without ever obscuring the melody. This British quintet performs its best trick by hiding a tough core underneath the candy-sweet surface: Heaton's wickedly satirical and sometimes impassioned lyrics. "Song for Whoever" is a merciless parody of a songwriter who can't remember the names of the lovers he immortalizes in his effusive lyrics. "Oh Blackpool" makes fun of people who know it's cool to be political but aren't sure which cause they're supposed to favor at the moment. Taking his tongue out of his check, Heaton sings "Woman in the Wall," an appeal for vengeance for a wife who suffers silently from the beatings of her alcoholic husband. "I'll Sail This Ship Alone," the album's most beautiful tune, captures with insight the mixed feelings that follow a romantic breakup. The Beautiful South's success rests on more than beginner's luck. Experience is one obvious factor. Heaton and backup singer Dave Hemmingway were in the Housemartins, a quartet that released a couple of excellent albums. For another thing, Heaton and Hemmingway made a shrewd decision by sticking with the wit and bright pop music that made the Housemartins so appealing. And that's what we like about the South

There is also a Japanese reissue released in 2004. It features all eleven original songs, plus five additional bonus tracks