Choke - The Beautiful South

This is the Beautiful South's second album, released in 1990, and it contains the group's only no.1 single to date, 'A little time'. I don't think that it is quite as good as the debut, which was more varied, and had less fillers on it, but this is only comparitive as everything that the Beautiful South do is of very good quality and better than most of the things going in the chart. The problem with this album is that the production is a bit thin and so the sound doesn't have as much depth to it as recent albums, sounding a bit like Belle and Sebastian in places. Maybe it was released a bit too soon after the debut album as there are ...  Read the complete review

This followed on quickly from the debut album and sounds in some respects like left overs for those sessions, stil has quality tracks though, but weakens in places, apprently the track 'Lips' was the orginal end part to 'Need A Little Time' and the words were taken away from 'The Rise of Grafton Street', I wonder what they were? An album that grows on you (not like mould) after time. Nice begining bit before the opening track, not so good final track. Like the first album there are still the social and political statements that featured so heavily in 'The Housemartins' and seem to be an integral part of the bands politics, they lead to a very amusing ...  Read the complete review

Defiantly the best album ever produced by the most reliable and consistent band in the UK over the past 13 years. This was the second album to come from The Beautiful South it was released in 1990 a month after the smash hit single 'A little Time' was released. 'A Little Time' was and still is The beautiful south's only number 1 single and it also won the 1991 Brit award for Best Video. Choke opens with the Hilarious Tonight I Fancy Myself. Which is a song about married life that seems somewhat fake and the wife (Brianna O'Corrigan) seems to only love her husband when he is taking her places like Venice for example. She then ask's him ...  Read the complete review

This is a fantastic album from the Humberside lads featuring some wonderful duets featuring Briana Corrigan's haunting voice. She combines beautifully with Dave Hemingway on "A Little Time". There are eleven fantastic tracks on this wonderful album. This is definitely an album worth considering, unles you like The Beautiful South, in which case, why don't you already own it? A great album from a great group. This is a timeless album from a group who do what they want and don't follow fashions or trends. They just do their own thing and that is what makes almost everything they do wonderful. ...  Read the complete review

Well the album is only 36 minutes long which is quite short really. but, you are rewarded with 36 minutes of great Beautiful South songs!!! It includes the fabulous Let Love Speak Up Itself (which has to be one of themost underated and best songs by the group), also My Book which has great lyrics and sound to it, also A Little Time which is also one the best songs ever to come from the BS. This really is a good album and these days it's even cheap, as you can get it as part of the 5 for £30 or 3 for £20 in a lot of the big shops.... ...  Read the complete review