Carry On Up The Charts: The Best Of The Beautiful South - The Beautiful South

The Beautiful South don't you just love em. Well actually it seems from the odd occasions when we have had friends round and sought views on what to put on as background music a mention of The Beautiful South brings polarised reactions. There are as many 'Oh God Noes' as there are 'Yes that would be great'. It does also seem to be split on gender too. Women love them, men hate them. To give them their due they have ploughed their own furrow. This album is a showcase of their hits all of which bar one have been written by band members Paul Heaton and Dave Rotheray. The songs though are very individual and the ballads make a nice change from the joyless dirges ...

I would never profess to be the biggest fan of The Beautiful South, I like their hits, but am not so keen on the rest of the material that they fill their albums with, so a collection of their greatest hits is right down my street. This is a collection of their most well known songs, and it jumps from upbeat pop tunes to tuneful ballads. The opening track is "A Song For Whoever", and most of you will know this as the song full of girls names. "Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue"". You know the drill. It was released in 1989, and entered the charts at No 37. Then we move onto one of the more upbeat tracks, "You Keep It ...

The Beautiful South are simply a brilliant band, and "Carry On Up The Charts" is a celebration of their talent, humour and unique sound. Frequently played on radio stations everywhere their songs are noticeably different as they are a world apart from most chart songs lyrically. You know what you hear normally, man loves woman, woman loves man, man hurt by woman, woman hurt by man. Anything and everything to do with love. Contrast this with "Song for Whoever", which so wonderfully mocks every other love song out there. "I love you from the bottom of my pencil case", a cutting slash at the numerous songwriters who make ...