Amazon.co.uk Review
It's hard to credit now, but when
0898 was released, it seemed as though The Beautiful South's commercial peak may have been behind them. Rave had effectively taken over the airwaves, and with critics salivating over all things baggy, Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray's songs were suddenly finding trouble being heard.
0898 failed to spawn any significant hits and yet all the quintessential Beautiful South hallmarks abound: Heaton's spirited defence of the barfly ("Old Red Eyes Is Back", "The Domino Man"); a bilious castigation of burgeoning lad culture; and the royalty-baiting "We'll Deal With You Later". They're often derided for being middle-of-the-road, and in as much as
0898 owes more to
Bacharach than The Stooges, it's true. But it takes a melodic nous like Dave Rotheray's to usher a worldview like Heaton's into so many homes. How ironic that "We Are Each Other" chooses as its target the kind of partners who lovingly feed each other at restaurants. Heaton and Rotheray are as near as you'll find to a songwriting equivalent. --
Peter Paphides
CD Description
Despite being one of England's most successful bands, it wasn't until 0898, their third album, that the Beautiful Southfound an audience in the US. This success (though by no means huge) might be explained by the fact that the band adopted a slightly more muscular sound on the album. Where in the past they had used deceptively sweet, even sentimental, musical backing, here there are slashing guitars and gruesomely bubbling bass lines to toughen the sound. Fans can rest easy, though, the band's unbelievable cruel and bitter lyrics remain in full force--for proof, look no further than "Something That You Said", which begins "The perfect love song/ it has no words/ it only has death threats".
Standouts include "We Are Each Other", a peppy but claustrophobic love song propelled by a meaty bass line, "36D", an ambiguous tract onprostitution which starts on a quiet but vicious note before exploding into a snarling rocker during the choruses, and "Here It Is Again", another in the band's series of screeds on horrific-sounding relationships, which here is presented with a roiling cauldron of guitars, military drums, and booming piano.