They are saying to not chew the hand that feeds you and but Paul Heaton, and his UK outfit The Stunning South, have constructed their musical foothold as considered one of pop music’s biggest skills and largest dissidents. With a knack for marrying melodic hooks with wry typically twisted lyricism, The Stunning South’s subversive streak was solely apparent after you realized what you had been singing alongside to. On their 1989 debut, Welcome To The Stunning South, they made their introduction to the world as a brand new breed of jaunty indie-pop with chew.
However this successful formulation of sharp lyricism couched in vibrant pop melodies actually started with the seminal 80s pop-soul band, The Housemartins, the place singer-songwriter Paul Heaton and drummer-turned vocalist David Hemingway spun their societal observations into infectious pop hits on their 1986 debut album, London 0 Hull 4, that includes the one “Happy Hour.” Then in 1988, through the very peak of their reputation, the group break up, and Heaton and Hemingway shifted their sights from storage pop to High Of The Pops. With a brand new line-up consisting of former Housemartins’ roadie, bassist Sean Welch, Hemingway’s former Velvetones bandmate, guitarist and co-songwriter Dave Rotheray, and drummer Dave Stead, the group was primed to make their entrance.
Hearken to Welcome to the Stunning South.
A darkish comedic streak
Even should you had been caught off guard by the lilting harmonies and finger-snapping choruses, the controversial cowl hinted on the darkish comedic streak that may turn into the thru-line of the band. Conceived by artist Jan Saudek, the duvet depicted a lady with a gun in her mouth, and one other with a person smoking, which was famously banned by the American retail chain Woolworths, leading to an alternate cowl with an innocuous teddy bear.
Welcome To The Stunning South doesn’t observe a linear narrative, however is finest represented by the 2 songs that bookend the album. From Willie Nelson’s “Sad Songs and Waltzes” to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” songwriters have been spinning sorrow into gold information and at the price of the relationships for millennia, however by no means has the exploitative nature of this association been so purely distilled as “Song For Whoever.” Heaton’s hilarious parody of a songwriter who can’t bear in mind the title of his lovers is delivered in such a stupendous timbre, the sting of the critique is nearly missed. “Deep so deep, The number one I hope to reap/Depends upon the tears you weep, So cry, lovey cry” is the antithesis of the everyday tune with a lady’s title in them and but it reached No. 2 within the UK charts.
Socialist politics with gospel harmonies
Everything of the album is one pop hook after one other, merging Heaton’s socialist politics with gospel harmonies and intelligent vocal interaction, notably on their second single, “You Keep It All In,” which featured Northern Irish singer Briana Corrigan as visitor vocalist and later full-time band member. True to kind, the tune paired a 60s jazz-pop instrumental with lyrics round a deeply dysfunctional relationship that you could possibly whistle alongside to, cracking each the UK and US charts at No.8 on the singles chart and No. 19 on Billboard’s Different Chart, respectively. This vocal sparring can be simply considered one of many that may characterize The Stunning South’s catalog.
Heaton, along with his swooning vocals and fervent supply, has drawn comparisons to everybody from Nice Younger Cannibals vocalist Roland Reward to Morrissey, however he instructed the UK publication Louder Than Battle that he primarily based his type of singing on David Bowie’s Hunky Dory, the place “Bowie’s voice is softer and more adventurous here than on his more operatic 80s albums and a higher range.”
Exterior of the boundaries of Northern soul
Adventurous to make certain, Heaton and the remainder of the “South” ventured outdoors of the boundaries of northern soul, with the inclusion of jazz-beats, refined piano melodies, and New Wave guitars to create the sound of The Stunning South that may final for nearly 20 years. Whereas unique lyricism was their raison d’être, they weren’t afraid to throw in an sudden cowl, particularly their good tackle the 80s R&B hit “Girlfriend” by Pebbles. “I’ll Sail This Ship Alone” throws one other curveball, with Heaton in a uncommon second of vulnerability lastly exhibits a chink in his armor on this melancholic ballad.
Together with the same old suspects in his crosshairs: alcoholism (“Woman In The Wall”), the music trade (“Straight At 37”), and politicians (“Oh Blackpool”), Heaton turns his pen on the viewers on the grand, penultimate monitor “Love Is…” asking the elusive music fan, “Twenty-five years from now, will you come to my cremation?”
It’s been greater than 25 years and ten albums later and The Stunning South continues to be a family title within the UK, with the oft-recalled statistic that one in each seven UK households owns a replica of Keep on up the Charts: The Better of The Stunning South because it went 5 occasions platinum.
Welcome To The Stunning South may be purchased right here.
