As a teenager in the UK I fell in love with the witty music of one Paul Heaton. Best known in this country as the founder of the The Housemartins, his second band still has the fastest selling CD in English history. That's right. "Carry on Up the Charts - The Best of The Beautiful South" moved copies faster than The Beatles. Their US success has been minimal, though, and they haven't had a American record deal for many years. It seems that they're "too British." Out of necessity I've learned to comb the internet for releases and gleen satisfaction from their European successes.
Unfortunately they're also now "too out of ideas." Today finally got my hands on their latest release, "Gawk." To be fair, the band has been going downhill since 1996 but I had high hopes for this disc. I grabbed it on my way to get lunch and hoped to spend some time driving around and bobbing along with the lads. Nope. It simply rehashes sounds, themes and wordplay from previous (and much better) works. It took them four years to create an album that they probably could have cranked out in their sleep. Sad, really.
On a happier note, I did buy Lambchop tickets today!!
Posted by mikewolf at February 23, 2004 04:52 PMwhaddya think of the CmonCmonCDCDs? Me - I could have done with just one disc. I can't tell the difference between them. And that string section.....oh my jeepers creepers.
Posted by: deano on February 23, 2004 05:19 PMTo be honest I completely forgot about them until this morning. They're now en route. From the reviews I'm kinda baffled why they released two as well.
Posted by: mrw on February 23, 2004 05:29 PM