release date: Oct. 12, 1998
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Jon Kelly and Paul Heaton
label: Mercury Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "How Long's a Tear Take to Dry?" (live) - 3. "Big Coin" (live) - 4. "Dumb" - 5. "Perfect 10" - 9. "Window Shopping for Blinds" - 12. "Losing Things"
6th studio album by The Beautiful South originally released on Go! Discs and for the 4th consecutive time with Jon Kelly in the producer seat. Stylistically, this band doesn't evolve much or incorporate new ideas to its repertoire, and nevertheless they continue to come up with interesting songs about life in general. It's not lyrics about major global issues but the never-ending works and re-works on human conditions involving relationships between men and women. The album peaked at #1 on the national album charts list like its predecessor following the band's first best of album Carry on up the Charts from '94, which was its first album to reach the highest position in the UK. The single "Perfect 10" featuring Paul Weller on additional guitar was the best fairing single of the album reaching #2 on the singles chart list. I find the album quite nice and really good - kind of "solid". It's well-played and cleverly arranged, I just think that the band tend to have put itself in the middle of everything: not really pressing anyone's toes, nor coming up with great new ideas. It's a bit... "so what!?" I miss the edgy lyrics, the energetic jangle pop elements, and something else but niceness. The small narratives about standardised normality are, however, sheer uplifting irony, which makes it anything but boring.
The front cover depicting a boxer is an artwork by Scottish painter Peter Howson.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
