Hit Parade (Painting It Red: Limited Edition - Beautiful South)

Member Name: davepridd

Product:	Painting It Red: Limited Edition - Beautiful South
Date:	14/10/00 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant music, singing, lyrics, arrangement

Disadvantages: None

The Beautiful South have to be the most reliable group in music today; Painting it Red was released 2 years to the day since Quench and 4 years to the day since Blue is the Colour. This time however, they have truely excelled themselves, not only in producing a 20 track double album, but also in producing their best work to date. Everything about this album is brilliant; not least the packaging which is completely different to their usual artwork, and is really unusual. It is also very impressive the way the group are still able to experiment with new sounds and still sound fresh after 11 years and 7 studio albums. I would really reccomend buying it now to get the limited edition 2CD version as you get an extra track 'White Teeth' which is very good and also the album makes more sense on two separate CDs as it seems like two coherent albums rather than one long disk.

CD1:
Track 1 - Who's gonna tell?
Quite a strange choice for an opening track musically as it is really low key, but the lyrics amongst other things seem to be answering critics who think that the group is past it. It sounds like Greek Folk music with acoustic guitar and accordian.

Track 2 - Closer than most
The first single which only charted at no22 despite being well promoted and their most commercial single since Perfect 10. I personally think that it sounds a bit to close to 'Let's do the Timewarp again' from Rocky Horror show for comfort, but it is still a strong track, and is again something new for the group with electric piano and heavy electric guitars.

Track 3 - Just Checkin'
This is the first of many duets on the album and is a dialogue about a husband who has drunk himself to death. It is musically quite similar to Closer than Most to begin with, but is much catchier and would have probably made a better single.

Track 4 - Hit Parade
Here Paul Heaton sings in a really gruff voice, and the lyrics seem to be autobiographical. It i
s quite a bluesy number with a really nice chord structure.

Track 5 - Masculine Eclipse
I think this is one of the stand-out tracks of the album. The lyrics are almost surreal with the chorus being 'And woman you're a lighthouse/ While the candle only drips/ Girl you are a shining star/ In Masculine Eclipse'. It is a beautiful piano ballard, almost as good as 'Song for Whoever', and Paul and Jacqui both sing very sweetly.

Track 6 - 'Til you can't tuck it in
Although the lyrics explore the familiar theme of ageing the music is very different to what they have done before, sounding like one of Bacharach and David's more uptempo songs.

Track 7 - If we crawl
This is where the collaboration with Fatboy Slim is at it's most evident, with the rhythm sounding like it was created by a drum machine which doesn't really fit into the rest of the backing, giving quite an unusual sound. The lyrics, sung by Dave Hemmingway are equally odd with a chorus of 'And maggots not have finger/Wagged at by leach'; it is almost indecipherable as to what the song is about.

Track 8 - Tupperware Queen
Although this was apparently written in 3 minutes it doesn't show, with fantastic lyrics about a bored housewife, very convincingly sung by Jacqui Abbott, with a simple country piano backing.

Track 9 - Half hearted get (is second best)
This is the albums most unusual track, the music could quite easilly be used on an Eminem track. It is made up of a jazzy harpsichord line, which is looped, and loads of heavy drums. Paul Heaton sings over this both in his normal voice and through a vocoder. It sounds fantastic and just shows what a talented group the Beautiful South are, being able to sit this next to a piano ballard.

Track 10 – White Teeth
Another fairly dancey track, with lyrics which seem to be about the group cancelling dates on their last tour, but again this is treated in quite an abstract way with the f
antastic line ‘Don’t fire shots from double barrel/ If you know you’re single bore’.

CD2:
Track 1 – The River
The best track on the album, although many others come close. Despite having quite bizarre lyrics which allude to people having fins, the song is beautiful. It has a backing of strings and brass band which give a gently symphonic air, while Paul Heaton puts on one of his best vocal performances for many years. It has been compared to ‘The Slide’ on the last album but it really is in a different league in terms of quality.

Track 2 – Baby Please Go
This sounds like a potential single, sounding a bit like Elvis Costello, and it is one of the most uptempo tracks on the album. It is unusually a duet between Paul and Dave, but Paul really steals the show singing in a dramatic falsetto.

Track 3 – You Can Call me Leisure
Another dance song, which seems to be an epitaph to someone who has just died, but the lyrics seem to be quite bitter with lines like ‘Your joyride didn’t feel bad enough to confess/ Till you placed the lemming on this family crest’. It has a very strong driving beat and creepy piano line making it sound a bit like Moloko.

Track 4 – Final Spark
I think this is another potential single, as it is really catchy, and is sung by Dave and Jacqui whose songs always seem to chart better than those sung by Paul. It has a guitar part identical to another song, I just can’t work out which song!

Track 5 – 10,000 Feet
This has quite a 70s funky backing, a bit like ‘Don’t leave the lights on baby’ by Belle and Sebastian, and although the lyrics don’t look very inspiring on paper, they fit in really well to this sound.

Track 6 – Hot on the heels of heartbreak
Although this is a really nice track I think it is the only song on the album which over does a certai
n theme – that of the country ballard; there is one on every album and whilst the group do it quite well, it gets a bit repetitive after a while. Having said that it is one of their better country songs and it does have good lyrics.

Track 7 – The Mediterranean
Another bizarre lyric, but I think this song is simply about why Paul likes writing his songs in Spain, and how the area has a good effect on him. The music is quite like Albatross by Fleetwood Mac.

Track 8 – A little piece of advice
Here the group are experimenting with more new instrumentation, this time xylophone. I think this backing works really well, and strongly contrasts with the lyrics which contain the very true line ‘There ain’t no government health warning/ on half the mad f**kers you meet’.

Track 9 – Property Quiz
This is definitely one of my favorite tracks of the album, as it sums up so well why the Beautiful South are such a brilliant group. The music has great dynamic contrast and is made up of subtle layers of loads of guitar and keyboard parts. Paul Heaton sings beautifully but the lyrics are very aggressive with a refrain of ‘And if his manhood needs the help of a scaffold or even a winch/ I will gladly supplement that extra little inch/ And if it ever reaches tie-break in the property quiz/ If they’ve got my fingerprints on/ They’re my tits and fanny not his’.

Track 10 – Chicken Wings
The album ends like it began with a really low key song with acoustic guitar backing and great lyrics. It is quite depressing folk music and is an odd way to end an album which is more optimistic than the group’s usual standard. The closing words are ‘All the luggage that the failure brings/ Is a swallow flying high that sings/ Look he’s got those chicken wings/ He may as well die’. Overall it is a bit like ‘Late Night, Maudlin street by Morrissey. <
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Overall this is probably the best album yet to come out this year. Unlike most over long albums it unfolds with one brilliant song after another. It is amazing that a group which have been about so long are still able to sound so fresh and experiment with new things.

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